


Doesn't Sound So Bad To Me

by InvaderHog



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Boxer AU, Cassian is the coach, F/M, Jyn is a Boxer, Jyn is ready to fight everyone at any time ever, K2-SO is a boxer and a dick, Professional Boxer/ Coach AU, but in a good way, fancy party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-02 06:03:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10211171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvaderHog/pseuds/InvaderHog
Summary: A gift for @copper_nailpolish for the RebelCaptain Secret Valentine’s Day ExchangeSummary: A RebelCaptain Boxer/Coach AU. Jyn Erso has been fighting since childhood, and won every title she can get her hands on. But when she suddenly goes through a major public incident, her coach and gym drops her and she has to figure out how to get back on the scene. She ends up at Alliance Gym, where the owner wants to put her together with infamous Cassian Andor, a coach known for only producing real winners.





	1. Fight Night

Chapter One

Fight Night

 

Jyn Erso had been fighting since she was three. When she was about to turn four, her father caught her outside sitting on a small boy from the neighborhood, punching in and shaking him over and over again as a small girl stood nearby, crying. Confused, he dragged the children apart and learned that the boy had made fun of the crying girl’s hair and was pushing her so Jyn literally charged him and took him down. Galen Erso should have been very angry or concerned. In fact, the nuclear scientist was impressed. His child was not going to be a scientist like himself or a fashion designer like his wife. His daughter was going to be a fighter.

  
He told Lyra that they were going to have to put Jyn in a class, and she was surprised at his enthusiasm. Their little girl? Hitting people? But Jyn was so excited about the prospect of getting permission to hit people and jumped at the chance. The worried Lyra decided to give in. At least they could make sure that she was watched and not just charging little boys on the playground whenever they vexed her.

  
She was an instant natural. She had perfect form and stance and was put in several classes, boxing, karate, and tae kwon do. She did everything to the best skill and was instantly a hit with all of her instructors. It was when she was eight years old when her instructor came up to her parents and was frank with them.

  
“Jyn is born to be a boxer. Her skills are impressive in everything she does, but I feel like she could be the next female heavyweight prodigy.”

  
Galen was estatic, Lyra was scared. Their eight year old was a boxer? Jyn ditched her childhood Barbies and dresses, getting a sandbag in her room and started following boxing on TV like it was her religion. She could name every heavyweight champion from the last hundred years backwards and by country, and knew everything there was to know about female boxing.

  
Million Dollar Baby was her absolute favorite and most hated movie and she constantly demanded that her mother help with keeping her weight correct before her next match.  
Galen was so proud of his little girl. He was so happy that she was so amazing. Lyra saw only doom in the venture. This lifestyle. This life was going to ruin her little girl.  
But she wouldn’t live to know if that was true or not.

  
Lyra died in a car accident the year before Jyn turned sixteen. It killed her father. He saw Lyra in Jyn and in everything she did. He found it difficult and hard for the first several months and Jyn did what she had always done to express her feelings- she fought in the ring. She was now top at her high school and she was going to go professional, with or without her father’s blessing and she needed a coach.

  
Saw Garrera was the man to be noticed by. Legend among many fighters, he had been taking an interest as of late in the development of female fighters and when he saw Jyn knock out three girls in one afternoon- he knew he found his next champion.

  
Galen was at first worried, realizing that he had let Jyn become to willful in the several months after her mother’s sudden death. He had let her too loose and she was now doing whatever she wanted. But Jyn wasn’t one for listening and she certainly wasn’t one for doing what Galen wanted.

  
She joined Saw’s gym and her real training started.

  
She barely scrapped through high school and only graduated because she knew that it would kill her father if she didn’t do at least that much before she turned eighteen and went pro. Galen was there on her graduation day, hugging her like he might never see her again.

  
“Stardust,” he whispered a pet name for her from when she was a child. Her parents had always told her that she was born under a brave star and would always be blessed by it through her life. She didn’t think that stars had that kind of influence on her life, but she did enjoy the sentiment now. She hugged her father back and left him, moved to LA and became a pro fighter without ever really looking back for several years.

  
Saw brought her up quickly, probably too quickly, and she was a major player by the time she was twenty. It was a great time for Jyn. She was fighting, she was getting endorsements and news coverage. She was constantly being interviewed and she was doing really well. It had been a dream come true. But as they say, too much of a good thing.

  
It was on her 23rd birthday, a major event around LA and she was having a massive party at her over-sized mansion her agent swore she needed to own. She had been drinking way too much and much like every birthday before it, she started thinking about her mother.

  
The car accident that had led to the sudden death of Lyra Erso was caused by a drunk driver. Jyn had demanded for days that her Sweet 16 needed to have a massive cake, one that was custom and beautiful and had boxing gloves on it. The only place to get such a masterpiece was half-way across town instead of the local corner store. So Lyra had gone out secretly to pick up this cake the day before Jyn’s sixteenth and on the way home, a drunk driver going the wrong way on the on ramp hit her head on.

  
Jyn never celebrated her birthday after that.

  
The only reason she was having a party was because it was being thrown for her by one of her coaches and it was going to have a lot of celebrity presence.

  
And that wasn’t what Jyn needed.

  
She needed to stay in, call her father, and wish she had never been born.

  
But tonight was the night things had changed. She was dared to take a shot when she shouldn’t have and Jyn never didn’t take on a challenge and one shot led to several more and before she knew it, she was drunk off her ass. She was on the second level of her mansion, standing over a pool with everyone in attendance filming her as she stripped down and threw herself off the side, going into the pool and then coming out again. She was a legend for a moment but it didn’t last long because she then proceeded to get out of the pool, get a towel, get into her friend’s Lamborgini (stolen since she just kind of took it), drove for several miles in circles around her neighborhood and then crashed the car into the tree in front of Demi Moore’s summer home.

  
Needless to say, it was not her proudest moment. And because of this, and the many, many photos afterwards, Jyn found herself in a lot of trouble.  
Her endorsement team had to drop her like a rock, the gym had a strict no drinking policy and Saw was forced to give her up- she was not good for his label anymore. His brand. Just like that, the only real coach she’d ever had.

  
Without that, Jyn saw her entire life start to fall apart. She never really had friends but now she really didn’t have anyone to turn to and she was alone, forced to sell her mansion for a small crappy apartment to make sure she didn’t starve and for a year she did a few fights but nothing major. Finally the event had blown over enough for the media to be worried about the next Kardashian incident that she was able to go back to her normal fighting schedule. But Jyn wasn’t winning anymore. She had been almost perfect in her scoring, but now she was giving in, she was going soft. She was losing her edge.

  
Six months of this and she was forced to do the one thing she had told herself she wasn’t ever going to do.

  
She called her father and cried into the phone for an hour.

  
Thankfully her father had been a relief in this moment and guided her to the right thing to do. She was going to have to start over.

  
Jyn the next morning needed to find a new gym and a new coach.

\--------

Cassian Andor was fighting in schoolyards since he was six years old. Born in Mexico, the young boy had been a natural fighter and was told that he could be a professional one day. He was fifteen, developing his skills on his own, when a coach scouted him and promised him a new life in America, as a professional boxer one day. Cassian was thrilled and he moved himself with his family to California where he was brought up in regular school and taught how to hone his skills as a boxer.

  
He was at the gym every day and worked harder than any other kid there. He was going to be a star.

  
But things aren’t always dreams and happiness. He was forced to face a bitter reality when he was only eighteen. Six days before his first professional fight, built up over several months, Cassian was driving home when his car stalled and he slid out of control, getting hit by a car from behind, pinning him to a streetlight. It took them an hour to get him out, and rushed to a hospital where they were able to save his leg but after several surgeries and rehabilition, his doctors had to tell him the bitter truth. His right knee was never going to be the same again.

  
He was never going to be able to be a boxer.

  
Before he had even been something, he was already a nothing.

  
That weighed on him for so long, he wasn’t really sure when it started to go away. But it did, finally, a while later.

  
After sitting around for several months, unsure what to do with his life, Cassian had to look at himself and wonder what came next. He had given up the chance to go to college, and he didn’t really want to be anything other than a boxer. He had no real skills other than fighting and his family had all moved back to Mexico because of the incident. He was alone.

  
That was when he came to Alliance Gym. It was a pretty decent sized place, good for rehabilitation, especially when he genuinely thought he might be able to at least try to come back to boxing for a split second, and instead he found himself observing the other boxers. It wasn’t intentional, but it just kind of happened naturally. He was standing near the ring one day, having to stop his workout because of the old ache in his knee that was enough of a sign he was done with boxing that he ignored constantly, and he was watching a sparring match. The boxer, some up and comer, was trying to go low and he was failing at it. Cassian watched the coach, Draven, yelling at the kid from the sideline, telling him to stop dancing and start fighting.

  
“He should go up, trick him,” Cassian muttered, not realizing he had said anything out loud. Draven looked at him, surprised to hear him speak. He hadn’t really talked to anyone for the first two months he’d been there, refusing help and just minding his own business.

  
“What?”

  
Cassian regretted even talking.

  
“What’d you say?” Draven demanded, not a threat but more of a “speak up if you’re gonna” tone.

  
“I said he should go up, let him think he has an opening, then come down. It’ll surprise him,” Cassian said, hesitant but slowly gaining in confidence. He had a bad left side, which was his weakness even before he was unable to box, and that had been how he let people think they were taking advantage of him. Give them that spot for a few hits and then come down hard. Worked every time.

  
“Hey, dumbass, stop fighting and come listen to the Mexican kid,” Draven said, ordering the boxer over as the spar broke up, the kid coming to the edge. Cassian didn’t appreciate being called “the Mexican kid” in that tone, but he spoke non-the-less.

  
His advice did not fall on deaf ears because the kid went back in the ring and knocked his opponent down with only one hit. He was jumping around like a child as if he had won the spelling bee.

  
“Wow, damn good advice,” Draven said, looking at Cassian. “What else you got?”

  
And that was how Cassian became a coach. He didn’t mean to be, but the more he got into it, learned from Draven, spent time at the gym, the more he understood the want, the need to help fighters be their best. He was never going to be able to get in the ring again, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be right next to it.

  
And so Cassian Andor once again had a purpose in life.

\------------

Mon Momtha was a very strict and very straight forward woman. Born to a family of boxers, she could hold her own, but found that the business side of boxing was more of her area of expertise. She could organize a fight in two hours and make ten million without batting an eye. But she was getting older and continuing her family legacy was important to her. So she started the Alliance Gym, a small place that she left in the care of a small group of boxers with little supervision for the first several years before she saw it begin to blossom.

  
The coaches had good eyes and with the addition of Cassian Andor, Alliance Gym was known for only producing winning boxers. And that kind of legacy was what she wanted. She entered her gym for the first time in six years wear a white suit and high heels and told everyone that she was taking control of operations and if they wanted to argue they could get their pink slip with her secretary. There were no objections.

  
Her first meeting was with Draven, head coach and real ruler of the gym in its day to day activities.

  
“I appreciate what you’ve done here. And I want to continue to improving this gym.”

  
“But-” there was always a but with a woman like this.

  
“But I don’t see the talent here that I want. These are beginners. Up and comers. I want someone who has a name attached.”

  
“Anyone who is anyone is already snatched up or is being taken out of here by bigger gyms and bigger stars in the sky.”

  
“Then I need a project.”

  
She clearly had someone in mind. He was listening.

  
“Jyn Erso.”

  
He let out a snort he didn’t mean and then took a moment when he saw that she was serious.

  
“Everyone knows that she is done. She hasn’t had a winning fight in six months, she completely ruined her own career.”

  
“Got into trouble and paid back her debt to society, served time for drunk and disorderly, paid for all of the damage she caused, lost every endorsement she ever had and was kicked out of her own gym.”

  
She apparently had done her homework. Draven was slightly impressed.

  
“She is done in boxing. She will give up in another six months, be just another failure of Hollywood.”

  
“Jyn Erso is a fighter. She won’t go out quietly. I want her here, now. With the best coach you have.”

  
His mind instantly went to Cassian but he didn’t say it out loud.

  
“Why do you really want this girl?”

  
He knew there was more to the story she wasn’t sharing. She smiled at him.

  
“Everyone loves a comeback. My father was a comeback. He had broken his arm in three places during a match, fought to get back into the ring for three years, finally did it and made his mark on boxing history by winning six more championships before retirement. Jyn Erso had a moment of weakness, has paid back for it in spades and is still fighting her way back. I want her story. And she used to be coached by Saw Gerrara, she has been trained by the best.”

  
That was a name he’d forgotten about for a while. Saw had been an old acquaintance back in the beginning of Alliance, but the man broke off early on, not thinking they were strict enough in their regimen. If Jyn Erso was trained by him, she was stronger than most fighters he could think of.

  
“I am bringing her in and I want your best coach to look at her.”

  
“Cassian won’t appreciate being put on the spot like that, he chooses his own fighters,” he said, now forced to say Cassian’s name. She was the boss last he checked and she didn’t seem like the kind of lady you said no to.

  
“Let him see her, and then decide for himself. I will call her agent and get her in here.”

  
“She still has an agent?”

  
“The Empire still represents her, keeps her locked up in a contract she can’t get out of for another few years but I think I can do some buying and bartering,” she said, looking at her cell phone and he did not doubt it in the least.


	2. First Comes Eternal Loathing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, was not expecting so much excitment about my fic, thank you. This chapter features Jyn's apartment- The place is based off of his apartment in Purge-Anarchy, where there is literally nothing in it.

Chapter Two

First Comes Eternal Loathing

Jyn Erso was living in a rundown one bedroom apartment, sleeping on a mattress on the floor when her cell phone rang loudly next to her. She answered with a short “what?” without even looking at the name.

“Good to hear from you too, Jyn.”

Han Solo, the asshole who had helped in her downfall. He was constantly trying to get her into alley fights to make quick cash. She always refused unless she needed rent money.  
“What do you want?”

“Get your skinny ass over to Alliance Gym now if you want to be a boxer ever again.”

She sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“What?”

“Alliance Gym and Mon Momtha wants you there, one hour. Get going.”

He wasn’t one for kidding so she knew that this wasn’t a dream. She hung up and hurried to get ready, not caring why she was being summoned to a gym, no matter what kind it was. Any gym was a good gym for her.

She threw on a black wife beater, her black leather jacket and jeans, and grabbed the keys to her motorcycle. Jyn wasn’t one for subtly.

She drove the long stretch to the other side of LA, the bad side that wasn’t too far from where she was living. She found the gym easily and stopped in front of it, looking at the place. It was hidden underneath a large useless highway pass abandoned long ago. The place was dark and brooding but it looked better than some places she’d seen before.

She walked up to the front door, opening it with a sharp tug and entered the grimly lit place. It was gritty and real and disgusting. Just her kind of place. There were several women and men in pairs or on their own, working out or boxing, to her left a long staircase leading to an office that overlooked everything like a perch. There were several rings but a big main ring in the middle and there were a few fighters in there right now, going at it.

Jyn looked around, wondering where she was supposed to go. She was here for a meeting, right? She thought maybe the office. The door of the office opened and a woman in  
white appeared. Jyn knew her instantly. Her father had been one of Jyn’s favorites growing up, so the sight of Mon Momtha was a surprise.

“Jyn,” she said, waving a little and coming down the stairs, followed by an older man who looked like he might be ready to fight everyone at a moment’s notice- Jyn’s kind of a guy.

“You brought me here,” she said, sharp as always. Jyn only knew how to fight people. Her social skills were very lacking. “What do you want?”

“Jyn,” the woman said, smiling as if speaking to a child, “I am so glad you came. I am Mon Momtha,” she said.

“I know who you are,” Jyn said, but it didn’t sound like a compliment. “Why did you make me come all of the way out here?”

“To the point, skip the small talk, I like it,” the woman said, shaking Jyn’s hand and looking behind her. “This is Draven, the head of this gym and one of the best coaches out there.”

She knew his name but Jyn didn’t give him the satisfaction of a nod. She still didn’t know why she was here.

“I want you to glove up,” Mon said, looking at Jyn, “I want to see what you can do.”

“You are a barter, wanting to see the goods before you buy,” Jyn said simply and the woman nodded.

“Nothing wrong with a little milk before you buy the cow,” the woman returned and there was a strange mutual understanding. Jyn was the goods. Mon Momtha was the buyer. She wanted to be impressed. Jyn didn’t know how to impress, so she would just fight and hope that was enough.

She took off her jacket and went to the edge of the main ring, getting her gloves on while the other spar was going on, Mon stepping aside to speak privately with Draven.

“Get in there, go low, low!”

Jyn looked up, seeing a man hit against the ropes, trying to hold off.

“Come on, get in there!” the voice yelled again. She moved to finish putting on her tape and saw the fight from a better angle. She saw a tall blonde beating on a smaller man, but clearly losing despite his height advantage.

“Kay, get in there,” a new voice yelled, thick with a Mexcian accent and she looked over to see a man standing next to the ring, throwing up his hands in frustration. “Break away. Break away!”

She went back to the taller fighter and saw that he was trying to break but it wasn’t working. He was getting tired and overpowered.

“Enough,” Draven announced, breaking it up and the Mexican looked over, clearly annoyed. “The boss wants to see someone new.”

The fight broke and Kay walked over to the ropes, getting out and the Mexican spoke with him quietly, Jyn getting help to put on her gloves. She got into the ring and waited for her opponent. The man from the previous spar came back in, clearly at the insistence of Draven. Probably to make a fool of Jyn. She was five feet tall, and ready to punch literally anything so he was going to be the one eating it soon enough.

She waited for the parities to her fight were ready and she raised her gloves, ready.

“Go for it,” Draven announced and she didn’t wait. Jyn was all about attack first, getting the advantage as fast as possible. Saw knew nothing about retreat unless absolute last resort. She tended to knock her opponents down pretty quickly.

She went down, hitting the man over her in the stomach twice and then shifted, hitting him in the side. She was relentless, but it made her tired faster. But never had Jyn ever lost without a damn fight. You had to knock her out to get her out of a fight.

“Move, move,” someone yelled from the sidelines but she wasn’t sure if it was for her or the other guy, so she just kept doing what she was used to. She moved away, putting her back to his side and swiping behind him, using her height for speed and then getting him in the back with a punch, much to his surprise. She turned and faced him again, ready to fight again.

“Stop letting her run circles around you!”

The voice wasn’t for her, apparently.

“Get in there!”

She readied for another attack, the man not getting a single shot in so far. She felt him finally land the blow, hitting her gloves, trying to break her defense, a short lived effort because she opened her arms to let him hit her, trapping his arm with one arm and then getting him with an uppercut the next move, knocking him backwards. He stumbled but didn’t fall and she moved, not letting him get his bearings. She went for the face, hitting him twice and knocking him against the ropes and suddenly there were arms wrapped around her.

Apparently there had been yelling while she was in the zone, calling for her to stop, she hadn’t even heard. The fighter from before was lifting her off of the ground, legs kicking as she tried to get out of his grip.

“Don’t resist,” he hissed in her ear and he threw her across the ring, recovering before she hit the edge and fell. “Calm down.”

Jyn turned and faced him, clapping catching her attention and she looked in the direction of Mon Momtha, grinning broadly.

“No wonder you lost your last six fights,” a voice said and she turned and saw someone near Mon Momtha, the Mexican from ringside. “She’s out of control.”

“Jyn, you were marvelous, don’t listen to Cassian,” Mon said, opening her arms as if she were going to embrace Jyn. Jyn spit out her mouth guard and moved towards the ring’s edge, throwing off her gloves and getting down, looking right at Cassian.

“You want to get in there, be my guest,” she said, and Draven had to step between them.

“Enough, both of you.”

She glared right at Cassian, not standing down but letting Mon speak.

“He’s not wrong, Jyn. Why are you losing your fights? If you did that in the ring, you would be winning every time.”

“Don’t know,” she said, which was the truth. She didn’t know why she hadn’t won a single fight since her birthday. Han had suggested it was psychology. She refused to speak to a shrink.

“She can’t win like that, that’s for sure,” Cassian said, looking at her but not with the annoyance his voice suggested, but with analysis, as if he was trying to figure her out. Or he’d already done that and he was trying to think of ways to change her. Men always tried changing her.

“Good, then you can make sure that she wins,” Mon Momtha said, and Cassian looked at Draven and then at her. His face was unreadable and Jyn glared at Draven.

“From today on, you are my boxer, Jyn. I just bought your contract and you do as Cassian says,” she said, looking at Jyn. Jyn looked surprised.

“You already bought it?”

“Twenty minutes before you came. I knew that you could do it, I just like seeing people when they think they have nothing to lose. It reveals very interesting results. You start tomorrow.”

Jyn looked at Cassian, and he looked back. There was a long pause and they both knew that they were going to hate each other.

Cassian had never seen anyone as ready to fight as Jyn Erso. Of course he knew her reputation, everyone in boxing knew her name but honestly he knew nothing about her personally. He had been surprised to even see her in a gym like Alliance and then when it was suddenly thrust on him that he was going to be put in charge of coaching her, he was a little pissed. Cassian liked control. He was good at his job as long as the person he was coaching understood that he was in charge. Jyn Erso looked like the kind of a woman who didn’t let anyone tell her what to do, even a legend like Saw Garrera must have had an impossible time trying to control her.

“She is going to be trouble,” Cassian muttered, looking at his friend sitting on the bench in front of the ring, a few minutes after Jyn had walked out without another word. He had been watching the door where she had left ever since.

“I think it’s a bad idea that you are coaching her, and so do you,” Kay said, taking off his gloves and tape, looking up at his coach. They had been together for a while as a duo, Kay was a decent fighter and could hold his own, but he hadn’t broken out yet in the boxing world. That didn’t bother Kay too much, he preferred being an observer sometimes, not the main talent.

“Mon Momtha thinks she is going to get a winner out of her, I doubt it.”

“But if anyone can manage it, it’s you,” Kay said, standing up and heading to the showers. Cassian watched him go and then moved to the ring, grabbing his towel when Draven walked up.

“You are going to coach that girl for only a few months at the least. Momtha may think that she is still a viable fighter but I wouldn’t push my luck with her. Give it a few months, let the boss forget about her and then cut her loose. She’s done in the world of boxing,” Draven said, not waiting for Cassian’s confirmation before walking off. Cassian had a strong feeling that getting rid of Jyn Erso was going to be like trying to keep the mob out of LA.

He grabbed his stuff from his locker in the office and was heading down the stairs when he almost ran right into Mon Momtha, standing right at the end of the stairs, as if she were waiting for him.

“I am sure you know that I expect Draven’s best coach to do me well.”

“You want Jyn Erso in the ring, winning, I can get you that, but if she stays winning is her problem, not mine.”

He had a neutral expression so the woman in front of him nodded, knowing that he wasn’t one for laying his cards on the table like others. She was fine with that. All she wanted was a winner and a story. Jyn was both and was going to be easy to promote.

“I want her ready for a match against Leia Organa in a month.”

That was a surprise. He couldn’t hide his face this time.

“Leia Organa. That’s a little much coming out of the gate, don’t you think?”

“Make it happen,” was the only reply he got and she disappeared out of the gym, slipping into her Mercedes without looking back.

“Well, that sucks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The gym in my mind is based off of a gym I saw in a movie once that looked like it was like tucked under an overpass, felt completely like a place Jyn would love to hang out at and box. Also Han Solo being her agent just made so much sense, the guy is such a tool, love it.


	3. Punching Bag

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I was obsessed with pointing out every single time we go to Jyn's apartment that she does not have a couch. I have no idea why that was something I did- but I did it.

Chapter Three

Punching Bag

Jyn was in her apartment that night, punching at her bag in her living room, thinking about everything that had happened. She had called Han and he confirmed it- she was no longer under contract with the Empire, she was an Alliance fighter and Mon Momtha had taken her contract at almost a third of the cost. Apparently she was a really amazing negotiator. But that meant that Jyn got an advance that put her apartment rent up for at least another six months without worries.

She didn’t care about the money. She cared about fighting. She had heard stories about Momtha and she was not really the kind of person who walked around throwing her weight around for nothing. She was the kind of person who chose her battles carefully and investing in Jyn was clearly a long shot at best. But it put Jyn in a situation that was only to her advantage. If she fought for Alliance, she would be able to get back on scene, really working hard and not getting into as much trouble as before. And if it didn’t work out, she still got paid because of the renegotiation on her contract. She still had Han as an agent and still was getting at least something for her trouble.

And she was pretty sure that if she didn’t make it this time, she was going to have to quit for good and get a real job- not that she even knew what that was.

The biggest obstacle in her way?

Cassian Andor.

She knew nothing about him. He hadn’t ever been a professional fighter and she really knew fighters, not coaches. She had to go online and Google him to really learn something. 

His story was very similar to her own and she was surprised. But that didn’t make him any less of a dick in her eyes, no matter how handsome he was.

Yeah, she had noticed that he was incredibly well built and good looking but he had an attitude problem that she was not ready to deal with. Jyn was used to people looking down at her, but for some reason it didn’t feel like that’s what he’d been doing. He had been watching her. Seeing her weaknesses. She hated that somehow she had been so exposed to him in only a brief few moments. He had seen through her when she was so careful not to let anyone else do that.

He was going to be trouble.

She called her father after her afternoon workout. He was currently in Germany, working as a professor of nuclear physics at a university there and he had been letting her have her space recently, coming for Christmas but not bothering her as she attempted to piece her life back together. She was grateful because she didn’t know how she would have  
handled that situation.

He was pleased to hear that she was going to get real coaching from now on, not that Saw wasn’t a great coach but he could be intense and demanding. A new coach would be good for her. But she emphasized that she did not like Cassian in any way and wanted nothing to do with him.

“Stardust, I know that you are going to do fine. That promoter lady was smart to get such an amazing fighter like you,” he said, smiling through the phone.

“I don’t know when my next fight is, but I’ll call you,” she said. It was an unspoken understanding since she was small that even if her father didn’t understand her intense need to fight, he would watch every single one in support of her. Even the ones she was destroyed in, he watched every second, refusing his daughter the dishonor of looking away. If she was going to get beaten, she was going to get beaten with an audience present.

“Be safe out there, Stardust. I love you.”

“I love you too, Papa,” she said, and they hung up. That was the first time in almost a year and a half she actually smiled after one of their phone calls.  
\----

The next morning Cassian was walking up to the gym about five in the morning, and saw Jyn standing next to her parked motorcycle, arms crossed and glaring at him. He guessed she didn’t want to seem like she wasn’t grateful for the opportunity by showing up late to her first session. Then again, it was hard to read her motives. Despite his intense desire not to- Cassian had spent the entire night thinking about Jyn.

He had gone home to his small apartment and watched every fight he could get his hands on, taking notes and watching her. Before her birthday incident, Jyn was amazing in the ring. She was intense and heartfelt and just exuded intense power. He could see why her opponents never underestimated her. She was a demon in the ring.

But her fights after that? They were less ferocious, like a person who was fighting just for the sake of money, the intense need to make sure they see their next meal. Something he knew a little of. But it was different from how she fought yesterday. She had been so intense, and wanted the win more than she wanted to eat or lie down and sleep. She had put everything into that fight yesterday. That’s what he needed to remind her of in the ring.

She straightened as he came walking up, “Good to see you know how to get to work on time.”

“Get your skinny ass inside,” he grumbled.

“Don’t look at my ass,” she glared and turned, going inside. Too late, he thought.

Kaytoo Esso was a decent fighter and was good at doing his homework. He stood in the gym’s corner, watching Jyn come out from the locker room, dressed for her morning workout and he took note that she was very still, no matter what she did. She seemed like a feral animal, not wanting to move unless it was to get ready to fight and she didn’t waste her time with a whole lot of words.

Cassian ushered her over, telling her to get started and he watched her as she began her workout.

“Your friend want to join,” she said, glaring in Kay’s direction.

“Kay, get to work,” Cassian said, Kay putting down his bag and getting to his reps. He watched Jyn though, and he watched Cassian watching Jyn. He had a bad feeling about all of this.

“Move it,” Cassian ordered, Jyn doing pushups now. “You have gone soft, Jyn Erso, look at these weak ass arms.”

That kind of talk was not something he would ever say to any of his other fighters but Cassian was certain that Jyn was the kind of person who succeeded out of spite, not out of coddling.

“Shut up,” she muttered and did another fifty just to give him a middle finger. She moved on and worked harder than usual. Cassian had assumed correctly that she had let herself go a little, not working as hard as she could have been. Not going that extra mile and now if she didn’t she had a feeling he would insult her more. She wouldn’t give that prick the satisfaction.

“Your first fight is going to be against Leia Organa. You think she won’t knock you on your ass easy? She has never lost a fight and I don’t think she is going to be pushed over easily.”

“Leia Organa?” she looked at him, doing her reps. He nodded, arms crossed as he casually leaned against the machine, watching her.

“The boss lady is serious, she wants you fighting ready. I have one month to get you that way.”

“I can fight,” she spat back and he looked her over. Doing that thing again. Looking through her. She wished she had the same ability but he was hard to read.

“I am not the one you gotta convince,” he said, quietly and she looked away. Leia Organa was her first fight after so many beat downs? That wasn’t her concern. Her concern was if she lost, would she be out of a coach and a gym again. She would never make it back to the ring if she didn’t have those.

“There is a 96.7% of failure,” Kay said, appearing behind Cassian.

“Meet Kay,” Cassian said, and she glared at the newcomer.

“Charming,” she said sarcastically and he looked at his other fighter.

“Go ahead and get gloved up. Spar with someone. Work on your jab.”

Kay looked like he wanted to say something and instead he walked off.

“Don’t mind Kay, he just kind of says whatever comes into his head. He doesn’t really have a filter.”

Neither did Jyn but she didn’t really talk so it didn’t matter. She finished her reps and sat up, and Cassian put out a hand as if to help her get up but thought better of it and pulled back. She looked at him, getting up herself. She stood up and realized that she was incredibly close to Cassian. She could smell Axe and leather and chalk. He looked down at her, almost a head taller and they just kind of stayed there for a moment, neither really sure what to do. She had never been this close to someone in a while. She didn’t know what to think.

“Andor!”

Cassian turned at the sound of his name and grateful for the distraction from the smell of Jyn’s lily shampoo, and he moved away first, hurrying over to a coach who had called him. Jyn needed a moment as well and then went on to her next set. She didn’t look anywhere but at the ground for a good few minutes, certain that her face was back to neutral before she attempted conversation with anyone again.  
\---

Cassian watched Jyn as she gloved up, and for the first time he didn’t look at her face. He was looking at her body. It was his job, of course, to observe his fighters but this wasn’t a job related moment. He was taking her in. Her brown bangs hanging around her face, framing her sharp features, her intense hazel eyes. He looked down, finding her strong, tense shoulders and her strong arms, hands working the tape to prepare herself for her gloves. Each movement was precise and intense. There was not a single moment she was calm. He had never seen someone so on edge before in his life.

Cassian had now gone from observing to straight up staring when Kay came up to him, sighing.

“Can I fight her, please?”

Cassian was quickly recovered from his moment of weakness and turned to look at his tall friend.

“You want to fight Jyn?”

Cassian had a foot on her, Kay had a foot and a half.

“Let the idiot try,” Jyn said, turning and looking at them. She was gloved up and ready to go. “But I wouldn’t do it. For his sake.”

“I am so surprised that your concerned about my safety,” Kay said, glaring at her now and Cassian stepped between them, pretty sure that there was going to be a fight no matter what.

“I am not, but I don’t want anyone pulling me off of you as I am beating your ass and throwing me out of the ring, hurting me.”

“Get in the ring,” Cassian ordered, reaching out and hovering over Jyn but never touching her. She got into the ring and Kay muttered.

“Doesn’t sound so bad to me.”  
\---

Jyn went home with a black eye and Kay went home with a bruised jaw. Cassian sighed as he saw Jyn heading out from the locker room.

“You need to learn how to control yourself!” he said, stepping in front of her and she glared at him. He wanted to scream and laugh at the same time. This woman was the hardest person to understand.

“He wanted a fight.”

“Yeah, and what would have happened if you had broken something? You want to come back, right? You can’t just go in there and hope that nothing goes wrong.” He would have thought that his concern was with her as a fighter but the pounding in his chest would suggest something else. Cassian ignored it and turned away.

“Get your act together, Jyn, if you are going to stay here.”

He left without another word and she went out to find his car, kicking his tire several times before she went home.


	4. Morning Glory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leia being a boxer who is loved by all just seems super appropriate.

Chapter Four

Morning Glory

Jyn might have put up a strong front in front of Cassian but she was secretly nervous about a fight with Leia Organa. She was America’s sweetheart, she was a major player in the game and by far one of the best fighters Jyn had ever seen. At only nineteen she was already doing pretty well for herself. Her twin brother, Luke, was her coach and the two were a serious threat. She was going to have to work hard to win the fight, if she could win. Jyn wasn’t stupid. She had been out of the game for a bit and was having a hard time winning lately, if she was going to lose, she wouldn’t mind losing to Leia because at least it was expected. But if she was going to lose, she was going to make the Princess of Boxing work for it.

Jyn did her homework and watched a few of Leia’s fights on her own and only mildly grumbled when Cassian made her sit down and look at his laptop the next day.

“Here, watch her matches, get to know her,” he said, leaving her with the laptop when he was called over to look at another fighter. She watched one video and then without Cassian looking, clicked out and decided to go exploring his actual laptop. He had a picture of space on his background and several folders of family photos in his pictures, but nothing to do with a significant other. She didn’t know why that was satisfying to know but it was. She found work photos and several listings about fighters. Probably his personal notes.

She found a new folder made the night before with her name on it. She saw several videos and photos of her in it, and several notes already. She was surprised to find that one of the pictures was the one of her from the night of her arrest. She had been only wearing a towel in that photo and she clicked out quickly, looking up as Cassian came closer. She put another video up and pretended to be disinterested.

“What do you think?”

She looked up at him, taking a moment to realize that he meant the fighting video. Not the fact that Cassian Andor had a picture of her in a towel. Something about that felt strange and she just shrugged.

“She is a good fighter, she is hard to predict,” he said, reaching down and taking the laptop from her lap, and she felt his fingers brush her thigh. She closed her eyes, trying not to think about it but it had happened anyway. Cassian was looking at his laptop now, clicking around and found another video, putting his laptop back, leaning in close.

“This was her fight last week,” he said, showing her a video, his breath against her neck as he pointed over her shoulder the way Leia was moving. “Perfect form.”

She was suddenly really angry. Maybe it was a delayed reaction to the photo or the fact that Cassian had called Leia perfect, but that was enough to make her mad. She moved, getting him to withdraw his hand and she stood up, handing him the laptop.

“I got it,” she said, “She’s better than me.”

“I didn’t say that,” he said, frowning at her and setting down the laptop. She crossed her arms, unsure what else to do. “You are a really good fighter. You just don’t have Leia’s control. She lets her opponent open themselves up for attack. You just kind of dive in for it. That’s fine but its not going to always work. If you just do what you usually do, you are going to get knocked down by her time and again.”

She saw the genuine concern in his eyes, which was surprising because he wasn’t really good at giving away anything. He suddenly became hard again, as if he had said too much and looked away.

“Get your gloves on.”

He moved and went to Kay, getting on the sparring equipment.

“What are you doing?”

“You want to hit something, hit me,” he said, Kay looking down at her.

“Don’t tempt me,” she said flatly and moved to the ring after getting her gloves on. The thought of punching him in the face was too tempting to pass up.  
She got into the ring and he held up the gloves for her to hit.

“Right,” he demanded, and she ignored him and instead went left. He watched her as she went for another shot and he reached out, hitting her shoulder and she glared at him.

“See, you never listen.”

She swung but he dodged.

“Come on, right, right,” he said and she gritted her teeth. She swung again and he moved away, making her chase and she didn’t like it. It was like he was toying with her. She swung again, hitting his gloves but it was only temporary as he was swinging again, this time hitting her in the glove and she was forced back.

“Come on, hit me,” he said, now getting almost arrogant, as if she couldn’t do it.

“Stop fucking moving!” she growled and swung, but he anticipated and countered, hitting her a little harder this time. She pushed back and went for his stomach, not thinking as she jabbed him, getting him pretty good in the side. He didn’t let up, and swung again and it was finally then when she listened to him and threw a right, hitting him in the shoulder and knocking him to the ground.

“Cassian!” she yelped, dropping to her knees, surprised that she had been able to knock him down. She used her mouth to tear off her gloves, touching his cheeks as he groaned. 

“Oh my god, are you okay?” she asked, and he opened his eyes, squinting at her.

“You threw a right,” he muttered and she helped him sit up. She touched him, his cheeks, his neck, his shoulder, finding that he was mostly okay, just stunned. She had never meant to go that far, it was supposed to be a little spar but he had made her so angry.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking him in the eyes and for the first time it seemed like they really were looking at each other. Cassian had been unable to keep a neutral expression this time as he stared at her, her palms cupping his face and making his heart start to forget how to work properly.

“Cassian!” the others had rushed over when they saw him on the ground and were hurrying into the ring, Jyn forced to let him go as they got him to his feet. She stepped back, not realizing that her hands were shaking. When was the last time she had ever been that scared? She took a glance at Cassian and then got out of the ring, not looking back as she went to the showers.  
\-----

Jyn hadn’t cried in six months and for the first time since her fateful phone call to her father, she stood in the showers at Alliance Gym and she cried.

Jyn had never hurt anyone. Sure, she beat the living shit out of people, but that was people. Cassian wasn’t a person. Not like just anyone. She didn’t know any of the other people she had beaten on. They were just people standing in her way. She had never worried about it because with the same vigor they’d have done the same thing.

Her hands were still trembling as she leaned against the shower wall, closing her eyes and letting the tears come. 

What in the hell had she been thinking? She could have seriously hurt him. She closed her eyes and slowly fell down into the corner of the shower, grateful the constant flow of water was there to let her believe that everything was going to be okay, no one was going to see her like this.

She heard people coming into the showers and she hurried, rubbing her eyes and letting the water hit her face, trying to make it stop. She left the showers, and found Kay standing over Cassian on a bench. Cassian had an ice pack on his jaw, and she felt like she had when she was in that courtroom, all of those people looking at her. Shame filled her insides. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been so angry and upset. Usually her outlet was punching, but it felt like that had made everything worse.

“Jyn,” Cassian said, going to stand and she did the only other thing she knew how. She ran. She turned, walked out and didn’t look back, even after hearing him call her name over and over again.

She ran to her motorcycle, got on it and didn’t stop until she was in her apartment and hitting the punching bag in her living room, trying not to cry again.  
\---

Cassian stood at the ring the next morning, looking at his watch. It was a Tuesday morning so it was fairly quiet. He looked again. He felt the ache of his jaw and wondered how bad it could have been if Jyn had been any more mad. He looked again.

She was an hour late. And then two hours. He walked in circles and then tried his cell phone, but no answer.

She didn’t come. That day, or the next day. Or the next.

Cassian waited until day four and then he was in the middle of reps with Kay when he suddenly threw down his towel and let out a frustrated yell.

“I am going over there,” he declared, leaving Kay to sigh.

“You are making a mistake.”

“I am going to talk to her. She should be working. We have three weeks until the fight,” Cassian said, grabbing his jacket and keys, ignoring the look on Kay’s face. He left the gym, and drove to where Draven said Jyn lived. The place was godforsaken to say the least. He was sure that in this kind of a neighborhood, he was probably never going to see his car ever again. So he patted it and took out his favorite pair of boxing gloves. He found the apartment building easy and then only had to go up one flight of stairs before he reached her door.

He had come over here, so determined, that he didn’t actually know what he was going to say. He had wanted to apologize, honestly. He had been trying for days to figure out how to get the best out of Jyn and he had been smart to provoke her, but he had been stunned with how he reacted when she’d hit him. He had thought she would have gloated but Jyn was so upset about it and running off like that? He didn’t know what to do. He had originally taken Kay’s advice about keeping his distance but it wasn’t working. He needed to see her.

“Jyn!” he yelled, banging on her door and putting his hands on his hips. “Open the door. You haven’t been to the gym in four days, we have to work.”

Cassian was not aware that his voice was filled with intense need. He needed her to come back to the gym. To keep on training. She was going to be a great fighter if he could get her there. She needed to come back with him.

“Jyn,” he said in a quieter voice, one that was barely enough to choke out the name. He closed his eyes and leaned against the doorframe. “Please, open the door.”  
There was a long pause. The longest of his life. And then the sound of a chain moving and the door unlocking made him straighten. The door opened a little and Jyn looked small, fragile and very, very sick.

“Jyn,” he said, surprised, and rushed inside, grabbing her by the arms and touching her forehead. Her nose was red and she looked like she hadn’t been sleeping. She was sniffing and coughing.

“I thin- I’m thic-” she coughed and he looked around the apartment. She had a few posters of boxers, a fridge with no food, a mattress on the floor and a punching bag. He wished he could say he was surprised.

“Come here,” he said, grabbing her and bringing her back to the mattress. He sat her down and grabbed her blanket, wrapping it around her shoulders. “What happened?”  
She sniffed and looked at him, clearly tired and sick. He touched her forehead, she was burning up. Her phone was sitting next to the bed, charging on the floor and had an indicator that she had several missed calls from him.

“You’re sick,” he said, though he didn’t know why. He grabbed her by the shoulders and laid her down, with no protest much to his surprise. Apparently there was an end to her fighting if her shivering was any indication that her strength was completely gone. He got up and looked around the room, finding a closet with clothes kind of just piled up, and found that she had an extra blanket. He laid it around her, and stopped to touch her hair, her eyes closed and her breathing steady. She’d fallen back asleep. She probably had the flu.

He got up and found her keys on the counter in the kitchen, and grabbed them, locking the door behind him. He went to the store he’d seen down the block, got her some medicine and soup and came back to find she was still out cold (pun not intended).

The kitchen was a disaster and he had to clean it up just to avoid getting sick himself and threw away what food she had left over and did the dishes while she slept. A large flatscreen in the “living room” was his source of entertainment for the afternoon as he watched news about boxing and waited for Jyn to wake up.  
She finally did after about an hour and he heard her moans as she attempted to sit up.

“Jyn,” he said, coming to her side almost instantly and touching her forehead. Still hot. She looked at him lazily.

“Cassian,” she said, and he nodded.

“Eat,” he urged and made her take the bowl and spoon. He would make her something better later, but this would have to do. He figured that she wasn’t a great cook but he knew what he was doing so he could manage fine for her.

She fumbled with the spoon, shivering because of her cold and finally got a hold of what she needed, eating quietly. She didn’t speak and kept having to stop to close her eyes, fatigued by simply eating. He sat down on the mattress next to her, watching her to make sure she ate every last bit of it.

“How long have you been sick?” he demanded.

“A few days, I just have been sleeping,” she muttered. She usually just kind of waited for it to be over. She was never really a great patient, so she would just hole herself in her room and wait for it to pass. She looked at Cassain as he took her bowl. He reached out and touched her forehead again, but he lingered and she blinked, opening her eyes a little more to stare at him.

“You’re still warm, go back to sleep,” he said, setting down her bowl and turning. He grabbed her shoulders and laid her down, still wrapped in her blanket and staring at him. He tucked her in and she was looking at him, unsure if she should speak.

“I’ll be back, just go to sleep. I am taking your house keys,” he said, and she nodded, unsure what to say. He hesitated a moment and she thought he might actually treat her like a child and lean in for a kiss on the forehead but suddenly he was jerking up and standing, grabbing her bowl, going to the kitchen, and then leaving her to sleep. But with what just happened, it was going to be hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Always wanted to do the "you're sick and I am going to take care of you even if you don't want me too" tropes for real.


	5. Cold Case of Flu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, so Cassian mutters in Spanish a lot this episode to himself- something I feel he would totally do. But since I am not a native speaker don't be surprised if his mutterings seem really stupid. But listening to Diego Luna speak Spanish is just... *happy sigh*

Cassian stood outside of Jyn’s apartment, trying to calm down. He closed his eyes and forced himself to start walking. She had looked so cute, all wrapped up in her blanket, and though she didn’t seem to know it, she was glaring at him still, the entire time and it had felt comfortable for a moment. But then she as laying there and he was- he cut himself off, touching his forehead.

“Eres un idiota,” he muttered to himself, going down to his car and finding that no, it had not been stolen just yet. He drove to the store and bought some groceries for Jyn’s apartment and kept trying to keep himself busy. He called Kay and told him that Jyn was sick.

“That’s what she gets,” Kay said unsympathetically.

“Just let Draven know. And I know you can take care of yourself for a few days, right?”

“Oh yes, I should just wait here for you to return like a good little doggy,” his friend replied and Cassian sighed.

“Please, entertain yourself for a few days. I have to take care of Jyn.”

He didn’t have to. He wanted to. But Kay didn’t say anything and Cassian for once was grateful. He hung up and finished paying, getting her next week’s worth of food up to her apartment, finding Jyn still sleeping. While she slept he cleaned her entire apartment, of what little there was. He folded her clothes, did her laundry, and cleaned the kitchen.

He was sitting on the floor in her living room, watching the television when he heard something stir about nine o’clock. He looked up and saw her shuffling towards him, wrapped in her blanket and sniffing. She came over and sat down on the floor next to him.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, reaching out and touching her forehead. It looked like her fever had finally broken, she wasn’t as hot. She shrugged.

“I’m alive,” she muttered. He stood up and brought back warm soup and she ate the entire bowl without question. If Cassian didn’t know better, he would have thought Jyn was the kind of person who just obeyed no matter what. Apparently when she was sick she had no strength to fight.

“You need a couch,” he said, sitting back down as she ate her soup. She looked around.

“I’ve never really sat down,” she said quietly. That he did not doubt.

“We might as well watch some of Leia’s fights,” he said, pulling out his laptop he’d brought from the gym and she ate her soup.

She wasn’t used to being taken care of. Jyn had been on her own for a while and she knew how to take care of herself, but without any energy and just feeling miserable, she was surprised how nice it was to have someone actually care about her health. But then again, it was probably because Cassian expected her back on her feet soon.

She looked over at him, and saw the bruise healing on his jaw. The one she’d given him. She remembered that moment. She had gone home and punched her punching bag for a few hours and then went wandering around, forgetting her coat and that was how she caught her cold. She didn’t say that to Cassian, he hadn’t seemed to wonder how she got sick in the first place. 

“Sorry,” she said and he looked at her, surprised.

“Huh?”

“I’m… I’m sorry about your….” She couldn’t finish it and instead went to coughing to cover it up. That was more than Cassian was expecting and he smiled. She was a tough cookie. But she was easy to like.

He turned and looked straight ahead.

“Que demonios?” he muttered. She looked up.

“Huh?”

“N-Nothing, uh, here, watch this one and I will make you some more,” he said, hastily grabbing her bowl and leaving her with the laptop. He was working on the next bowl when he started to think that maybe she was cold. Sure she was wrapped in her blanket, but Jyn was sitting barefoot on the cold floor. Probably better to get her into bed again. Not- Not like into bed, but like… she needed to go back to sleep! Maldito Cassian! He screamed at himself in his head. He was freaking out over nothing. He came back to find Jyn was lazily watching the fight and moving her lips as if she were doing silent analysis.

“You should get back into bed,” he said, taking the laptop and bowl to her bedroom and sitting down on the mattress, Jyn shuffling back and sniffing. She crawled onto the mattress and laid down, wrapping the blanket tight around herself and Cassian pulled her blanket up, tucking her in again. He paused, their eyes meeting again and the now very familiar of intense panic and some other feeling he didn’t know how to describe appeared.

“I’m your coach.” She stared at him.

“Yeah?”

Why had he blurted that out? Was that for himself or for her benefit? Was that like a weird warning? He suddenly recovered.

“And so if you’re sick I will be there to take care of you. As… a coach. Should.”

She frowned.

“I can take care of myself,” she growled and he was glad to see her spark was finally coming back. He shook his head.

“Even so. You are ever in trouble, or you’re sick, I always have my phone on.”

“Sure,” she muttered, looking at him and then nestling into her blankets and closing her eyes. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep.

He finished her soup for her and left the leftovers in the fridge and left for the night. Taking one last look back at her before leaving the apartment, taking the spare he’d found in her kitchen drawer without permission.  
\----

Jyn woke up the next morning feeling better than she had in years. She was calm. It was a weird feeling. She sat up, her fever had broken, she had a little cough and generally she was okay. She looked at her phone and saw a message from Cassian.

“Get breakfast, actual food please, and meet me at the gym when you are feeling better.”

She got up, and looked around her house, seeing that he had cleaned everything. He even bought her food. She ducked her head down, not sure what it was that was tugging at her chest and decided that she was just still getting chills, nothing to worry about.

She ate her breakfast, worked out and took the medicine he’d left for her on the counter. She left after lunch and found her way back to the gym.

Apparently her being sick was big news because her favorite woman in white was back. She was standing outside of her car, on her phone and spotted Jyn’s motorcycle came riding up.

“I’ll call you back. Jyn!” she said, straightening and taking off her sunglasses.

“Ma’am,” Jyn said, unsure what she was supposed to actually call her but ma’am seemed appropriate. She didn’t strike Jyn as the type who would be friendly if it wasn’t for business.

“I hear you got sick. Nothing worries a woman more than her fighter getting sick three weeks before her first fight.”

“Cold, I am better,” Jyn said, suppressing a cough.

She looked over at the front door and saw Cassian and Kay coming out. Cassian pulled off his jacket he was wearing and rushed to her side.

“Jyn, you’re not better,” he said, throwing it around her and dragged her inside, Mon Mothma staring after them. “You need to stay warm,” he grumbled and pulled her into the locker room, sitting her down. He didn’t seem to mind that it was a woman’s locker room as he sat her down and looked her over, touching her forehead.

“When I said come in I meant when you were feeling better,” he said, relieved to find that she wasn’t warm anymore.

“I’m fine,” she protested and he made a face.

“Yeah, well, you’re not going to be fighting today,” he said, pointing a finger at her.

“I just am here to work out,” she replied, and he stood up.

“Fine,then get changed and come out when you’re ready,” Cassian said, standing up and leaving with only a wordless look at her. She was still wearing his jacket, smelling like him- chalk and spices.

She came out a few minutes later, ready to start her workout when she heard voices on the floor. Cassian was talking animatedly with Draven and Mon Mothma, clearly annoyed.

“Just tell the press that she had a cold, it wasn’t like she was dying,” Draven said and she knew what this was about. Three weeks from her fight and she gets a cold, meant that she was at risk for the weigh in at the end of the third week. She was going to have to build everything back up.

“Her weigh in is on Saturday, two weeks from now and she is going to have a press conference with Organa. She needs to be ready.”

“And she will be, but she is still sick, you push her too fast she won’t recover quickly and then we won’t have her ready at all.”

Cassian was now muttering to himself in Spanish, probably something about Draven being an idiot and Mon Mothma was looking at her phone.

“This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to reassure the fans who have already been gearing up for this fight that everything is alright. This weekend I am hosting a gala for one of my charities and you will bring Jyn and the other fighters from Alliance to meet with my donators. That way I can get good press and you can reassure everyone that Jyn is going to be fine and make weight and I don’t have the Empire breathing down my neck, trying to make me second guess my decision to invest in her.”

This seemed to be the final word and Cassian slowly nodded, understanding. Jyn waited, not wanting to get any closer to this than she had to and Mon Mothma looked up to see her.

“Ah, Jyn, I am so excited to see you fight,” she said, in a way that was more political than genuine. She shook Jyn’s hand and then left the way she came, with more grace and tenacity than anyone Jyn had ever met. But this just motivated Jyn more. Four days was lost time and she was getting further behind in her routine. She looked at Cassian, and nodded to him, heading over and starting to reps without another word. She wouldn’t spare today but she was going to make sure that she didn’t let herself go just because she had a little headache.  
\----

Jyn’s cold was gone before Thursday and Friday she was leaving the gym when a car pulled up in front of the gym, Cassian close behind her. He saw Mon Mothma’s assistant roll down the window.

“Get in, you need a dress for the gala.”

They had assumed correctly that Jyn didn’t own a dress. Anytime she did a weigh in or was a function, she had been provided with clothes but she never really owned anything. She looked back at Cassian and felt like she should say something but she didn’t know what and got into the car instead. She watched him head to his own car as the limo pulled away and she felt like she should have said at least “I’ll see you later” or something. But Jyn wasn’t great with words. She didn’t know how to make pleasantries or small talk. She usually just glared until her message came across.

But for some reason she felt like Cassian knew that about her and wasn’t going to take any of her staring personally. She wanted to say that because she needed to believe it. 

Otherwise he might just keep on not liking her and something about that brought a weight on her chest she wasn’t used to. He was first person in her entire life she wanted to like her.

She watched him disappear as the car pulled away and closed her eyes, wishing she were a stronger person. She could have at least waved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jyn is back in action and ready to party.


	6. Dancing Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jyn doesn't know how to deal with feelings. #girlmetoo  
> Oh and did anyone ask for fancy party and dancing tropes? No. Getting them anyway folks.

Jyn did not like doing anything that didn’t involve punching. So of course shopping for an evening gown was not her style. When she was first in the business she just kind of showed up and was given what to wear, this was the first time she was forced to go in public and pick something elegant to wear. She was also a boxer and she had a boxer’s body, and dresses weren’t exactly flattering on her sometimes. But much to her surprise, the assistant was really good at helping her choose.

She did most of the talking to the person at the store they went to, and it was decided that earth tones or something black would suit Jyn best, she was not a bright color personality. And this was a charity gala so it had to be floorlength with a slit for dancing. She didn’t know but the one they chose was rather amazing.

Sleeveless and black, it hugged her perfectly and a short long sleeved black cardigan was to cover up her arms and make her look more slim than usual. She was surprised at how good she looked and she could never go wrong wearing black.

She was dropped off with her dress at her apartment and told that the night of the gala a woman was going to show up and help her with her hair and makeup and a limo was going to pick her up. Han Solo was going to be coming with her, to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid. He technically was still under contract as her manager, even though really it seemed that the lady in white was her real boss. But Han didn’t seem to mind because he got to go to a free dinner and babysit his boxer.

She learned the next day at the gym that all of the fighters went, and the coaches were invited as well. She looked up from her rep set to see Cassian and Kay standing in the ring and wished she had the courage to ask Cassian if he was going. He probably would just to scope out other fighters- he seemed the type of coach who was always ready to meet competition and potential up and comers.

Just as she was getting back to her reps Draven walked over and glared at her. The two really had nothing but animosity between them and that seemed to suit Jyn just fine.  
“The Boss wants you to go with Bodhi Rook as your date for the gala.”

Bodhi Rook was an astronaut and pilot, just returned from the International Space Station. He was popular online for his YouTube videos about space. He was a sweetheart and she was sure she could snap him in half with a single look. Putting them together was probably to get Jyn back into the limelight and in the good way. If Bodhi Rook, America’s   
Sweetheart liked her, why couldn’t America like her too?

“Fine,” she said, throwing down her towel and then instantly regretting it. Cassian had to have heard that. She dared a glance his way and saw that he and Kay were now talking, just standing in the ring. She coughed and went back to her reps. She had planned on going alone and now she had a pity date with a celebrity she didn’t even know and surely now Cassian knew it. She ignored the intense pain in her chest and started to bench press 150lbs.  
\---  
Cassian, standing in the ring, was trying to distract himself from looking at Jyn every ten seconds. Kay was proving to be helpful in that, attempting to switch up his punches and giving Cassian something to think about. He always seemed to know where she was, no matter where she was in the room. He was grateful that she was back to full health but the idea of her going to the gala for the Alliance was irksome. He knew that she didn’t want to go and she certainly didn’t want to be shown off like a show pony. Sure she was probably used to it, but she clearly didn’t like it.

He originally was invited to the event before but he had declined the offer, not seeing any real benefit of it. There were going to be fighters there, sure, but they would be mingling and useless in his constant pursuit of fighting knowledge. But then when it was declared that Jyn Erso was going to be up front and center on the stage, he got his ticket out of the trash at his apartment and rented a tuxedo for the night.

He wasn’t expecting the news about Bodhi Rook though.

When he had been giving Kay a break to stretch he overheard the ever so joyful news. Bodhi Rook was a national hero, so of course he was going to be a great pick but Cassian knew exactly what Jyn would be thinking- he would break under her grip.

He hadn’t even thought that she would have a date for the gala. She didn’t really seem like the type you put on your arm and put on display at something like that. If Cassian had even thought of asking her to go anywhere he had a feeling he would walk either right next to her with his hands in his pockets or at the ready for a fight. In his case to potentially break one up.

But Bodhi Rook was a safe choice. He was a good kid. He wouldn’t do anything. He stole a glance at Jyn, more than he had dared the past five minutes. She was working out again and he felt like he should say something. Reassure her that she could leave the event any time she wanted. That she didn’t have any real expectations on her. That this was just a dog and pony show for Mon Mothma’s promotion. But she knew that already and it wasn’t worth the wasted reassurances. Besides, he knew that they would be unwelcome- as would his presence right now. She needed to focus. So he didn’t speak to her, pretty sure that he needed to think about his other fighters as much as he thought about Jyn Erso.  
\---  
The night of the gala came and Jyn was fully recovered from her cold. She was greeted by a far too excited makeup artist that afternoon and had her hair and makeup finished pretty quickly. She was helped by the girl into her dress and then guided downstairs to her limo where Han was waiting, talking on his phone. She had to lift the dress a little to walk down the stairs, wearing flats because she refused to wear heels no matter how much they tried. Han finished his conversation and grinned at her in the way made her want to punch him in the nose.

“Well, don’t you look ready hit someone in the face?” he asked, knowing her all too well. He opened the door for her and she didn’t bother thanking him because he knew she wasn’t really thankful and they drove in the car in mostly silence.

“We are going to pick up Bodhi from his hotel room and then have a photo op at the gala. It’s going to be pretty basic stuff tonight. Just need to get through dinner, a little dancing and then you’re good to go.”

“Is she going to be there?”

Han was well known for throwing curves her way. He had been the one who sent the paparazzi to her house the night of her birthday and one of the reasons they knew about her accident so quickly. He had even called her towel shot great publicity. He was an asshole and he would do anything to promote her.

“What do you mean?” he asked, looking at his phone.

“Don’t do that. Leia Organa, is she going to surprise everyone and show up out of nowhere and cause me problems?”

He shrugged and she knew that meant “maybe” in Han Solo. She glared straight ahead. Cassian might be there tonight. What if she lost her temper and embarrassed him? She didn’t want that. But if Leia Organa wanted to start something she was more than happy to finish it.

“Dick,” she muttered and looked at her phone, wondering if she should text Cassian. She thought about it too long and instead just put her phone away, wishing she wasn’t doing this at all.  
\---  
Bodhi Rook was a pilot and astronaut and far out of his league with the woman they had brought him to go to the gala with. He had been invited to a lot of events since he’d returned to Earth two months earlier, and his agent, his cousin Rudy, had told him that this event was a big deal and he really didn’t have a way to get out of it. Oh and he was going with the boxer Jyn Erso. And Bodhi thought he knew that name from somewhere and one look from Jyn in the limo he knew that he was going to be in for a long night.

She didn’t speak and he felt on edge the entire car ride, constantly playing with his cuffs and looking out of the window. Han Solo spent the rest of the ride to the hotel of the event on his phone with more clients and Bodhi just stared at the floor, unsure what to do.

Most people upon meeting him asked him several different questions and mostly pertained to space. Jyn Erso told him not to talk to her during the event and just smile and wave when asked. He was pretty sure she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

They arrived a few minutes later and he thanked God as he hurried out of the car, smiling and waving to thousands of cameras.

The Gala was a massive event, much bigger than Jyn had realized. It was flooded with paparazzi and celebrities and boxers everywhere. She got out of the limo and was instantly the talk of the town. She did not smile but stayed generally neutral and walked next to Bodhi, not once touching him or taking his arm. He did well to smile and keep waving and talking, shaking hands and thanking people. She didn’t speak at all, even when questions from the press were thrown her direction. Han Solo behind her took most of the questions himself and was hamming it up well in promotion for the fight. She didn’t care enough to actually hear what he was saying about her.

Jedha Hotel was a massive building that looked like a desert paradise, with sculptures and sand and rocks all over the place in nice neat bowls and massive aquariums with scorpions inside. Jyn was impressed by its grandeur, which was hard to do since she was very difficult to impress.

“Oh, there you are,” a voice said with a sigh and she turned around to see Kay. He was wearing a tux and looked disappointed to see her.

“Kay, you’re here,” she said, statement dripping with annoyance. Bodhi stopped to see who she was talking to.

“I guess you look fine,” the fighter said, looking her over with a sharp eye and she said “thanks” in the flattest voice possible. Jyn felt like if she and Kay were ever alone together they would be at each other’s throats in a heartbeat. They didn’t like each other from minute one and now was no different.

“Uh, h-hello, I am Bodhi,” the astronaut said, and held out a hand. Kay took it with a glare at Jyn.

“Kay Too, fighter for the Alliance,” he said, and looking at Bodhi. “Guess you’re a rebel now.”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s what they call the fighters in our gym,” Jyn said shortly, “They call themselves rebels and now you’re one too.”

The boy smiled at them both, and looked almost happy for the first time she had met him and Jyn suddenly felt like she was going to need to protect this kid from getting his heart broken by literally anyone.

“Cassian is here somewhere,” Kay said, offhandidly and Jyn snapped her attention to the lobby, as if she would see him there. But she was far too short and needed to work on finding him.

“We’re going inside,” she ordered, walking by Bodhi and heading to the main ballroom, ignoring everyone as she looked around for Cassian.

She was about to head towards the tables and see if he was there when Mon Mothma appeared in a brilliant white evening gown and bright smile to plague Jyn with constant photo opportunities. She hated it and wished she could escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cassian can't deal with feelings. #boymetoo  
> Bodhi being an astronaut was a last minute decision- a reason for him to be famous enough to make an appearance at the gala. But now I think of him being a sweet, shy little Youtuber.


	7. Fame Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Gala! Everyone loves a fancy party!!!

Cassian arrived to the gala as early as he could, unsure of when Jyn was going to be arriving. He had been worried that with her height and the constant stream of paparazzi she was never going to get a break during the entire evening. He fixed his tie in the men’s bathroom and slicked back his black hair, looking at himself. He didn’t look like a coach today. He didn’t look like a boxer either. He just looked like a guy in a rented tux with an intense need to find Jyn Erso.

He left the bathroom and found that the wave of celebrities were starting to make their way in, pictures and cameras were going off and questions were being asked. He got a few himself, since he was still recognizable, not completely invisible like he’d have preferred, but he was grateful to hear that almost no one seemed to actually know that he was coaching Jyn, since most of the questions seemed to be more about Kay. 

As he was finishing his questioning he was suddenly grabbed by the arm of Europa, the sister of one of his fighters from a few years previous. He had broken his arm and was unable to come back from the injury and Cassian was forced to cut him from the roster, but Europa didn’t seem displeased to see him. She even asked if he was going at it alone tonight and he replied the only way he knew how.

“I am here to promote one of my boxers,” he said, not sure why he felt strange about calling Jyn one of his boxers.

“Well, then I guess I’ll just ask, do you still dance like you used to?”

“Uh, well… I guess so,” he said, suddenly nervous. His dancing skills were rusty at best. He had taken many dancing classes to prepare himself for his time in the ring. Dancing helped him learn balance and control and he had tried before the accident to always go dancing but he had really not been at it much lately.

“Then I want the first dance tonight,” she said, and before he could refuse her, she was off again. He heard a bunch of noise coming from the entrance of the hotel and thought that more famous celebrities must be making their entrances now so he was going to have to start looking for Jyn again. He went off but before he could find her, she found him.  
\----  
Jyn spotted Cassian before he saw her, standing at one of the booths of the silent auction for the charity, cornered by a paparazzo and she ignored the man talking to Cassian and walked right up to him.

“Cassian,” she said and he turned at looked at her, surprised.

“Jyn,” he said, and the paparazzo saw her, and snapped a picture. She glared at the man.

“Go away,” she said, and grabbed Cassian by the arm and led him to Bodhi, being asked a few questions in the opposite corner. “I heard that you were here.”  
Cassian had been so taken by surprise, by her sudden appearance, her intensely beautiful dress and just the fact that she looked so ready to take on the whole room, evening gown or not it occurred to Cassian that he in fact knew exactly what was wrong with him now.

Cassian Andor was in love with Jyn Erso.

It was the only explanation that didn’t involve him possibly suffering from a brain tumor to be the logical conclusion. The way she looked now, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he wanted nothing more than to tell her that but just as the crashing realization of his intense feelings came down around him- Jyn was his boxer. He was her coach. There was nothing but a wall between them and there was never going to be anything else.

She was standing there, people had cameras pointed at her and he remembered one thing that he had forgotten in those three seconds of pure elation at his dawning- she was only here to make her way back. He was a pit stop. She needed to be in the ring. She needed to be a winner. He was going to make sure that she was a winner again. That way she would get a better coach, a better gym, a better life. She didn’t need him. She didn’t need the Alliance gym or Mon Mothma. Jyn was standing now here, on her own and he was nothing but a spectator.

It had never occurred to him that a heart could be broken- in a metaphorical sense. Sure, he had heard it in movies and in books, that someone feels such an intense connection to another person, only to realize that it was going to be gone and there was nothing to be done about it. It was like the strange weight that was pressing down had lifted and then came slamming back down again, this time far worse and he had to look away from her.

“Y-Yeah I came-” to see you, “To help promote Alliance.”

He closed his eyes at his own weakness.

How had he managed in thirty seconds to ruin his entire life? Jyn turned to him, as if surprised by his response. But he was good at putting on a neutral expression and he refused to show the intense torment going on inside his own head to her. She didn’t need to be bothered by his stupid feelings. She was far above him. She was far above any of them. She deserved a place among the stars for how amazing she was.

“Right,” she said shortly, looking at him intensely in the eye and he dared looked at her back, feeling the weight crushing his very soul as he saw that she seemed confused and lost, but still that fire of itching for a fight was there. And before he could respond the sound of a shout of her name stopped them both.

“Jyn!” Han Solo, douche bag extraordinaire came hurrying over. “Okay, so when I said that Leia Organa wasn’t coming. Yeah, I lied.”  
\----  
Jyn felt a hundred emotions at once in this moment. Cassian was beyond useless. He wasn’t giving her anything. She had been so happy to find him and so relieved he was even there and now he was being so distant. She hated it and she hated the fact that now in this moment she was going to have to control her temper just a little bit as not to punch Han Solo in the face.

“What?”

“Yeah, well, you make great TV,” Han said, and she felt Cassian grab her upper arm and pull her close, so she wouldn’t deck Han and she could smell his cologne and spices, the same smell that had stayed in her kitchen for days. He brushed his lips almost to her hairline, jerking her back so much that she felt a rush of something rush up but was pushed back down by intense rage.

“Look, she is on her way up, play nice,” Han said, as if he were saying “let the games begin” instead. Cassian didn’t let go of her, talking into her ear.

“Don’t hit her. You don’t want any trouble tonight,” he said, and she turned and looked at him.

“I won’t hit anyone,” she said through gritted teeth and he let go of her arm, but for she felt his hand just move to her back, as if to guide her as they walked up to greet her new enemy.

Leia Organa was dressed to kill quite literally. She had taken a page out of Mon Mothma’s book and wore a long white evening gown with no sleeves and her long brown hair tied in an intense braid. She was beyond beautiful and like Jyn, she looked ready to punch someone in the face.

“Leia,” Han said, hurrying to her side, and she ignored him.

“Jyn Erso,” she said, and held out a hand, to shake. The paparazzi were everywhere now and Jyn looked at her hand. She felt Cassian’s hand tense on her back but he didn’t push her this time. It was like he was reassuring her that he was right there.

“Leia Organa,” she said, and took Leia’s hand, shaking it. They both had intense grips but it seemed that Leia didn’t want a fight today and she broke it off first. The applause from the audience and the camera flashing was stupid and pointless and Jyn turned to go, walking right into Cassian. He looked down at her, and touched her shoulders.

“Are you alright?” he asked, so quietly that she had strain against all of the noise to hear him. She stared at him, unsure of what to say. She was fine, sure, but the way he had asked her. Did she look like she wasn’t? She was about to respond when he sharply nodded, and wrapped an arm around her, moving to the side and guided her to a table, sitting her down. This apparently went unnoticed as everyone was now surrounding Leia Organa. Cassian sat Jyn down and bent down on one knee in front of her.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked, so gentle and so calming that she must have really looked like she was going to start screaming to get this kind of reaction out of him. She looked down at the floor, feeling her neck reddening as he somehow managed to keep his hands on her shoulders and was gently stroking with his thumbs to calm her down. It was only making it worse.

She wanted to reach over and grab him by his stupid fancy tux and kiss him. It was making her really angry. Since when had she wanted to do that? She looked him in the eye, starting to see through him- finally, and seeing that he was really worried about her. Since when had it become so important to her that someone even cared?

But her thoughts were interrupted with the strike up of a band, attempting to get people to their seats for the dinner and the announcements. Cassian looked up to see Kay and the other fighters were heading to their reserved tables.

“I have to sit over there,” he said, apologetically but she couldn’t understand why. He was just going to be a few tables away. Maybe it was as far as the north pole with the way she was looking. He stood up and she realized he had put her where she belonged in the first place. His hands seemed to hesitate as he let go of her and moved a few tables away, sitting down and never once took his eyes off of her. And for some reason, she kept looking for him too.  
\---  
The speeches and talks and the dinner were just what she expected- totally boring. Bodhi tried to strike up conversation but to no one with interest. Kay looked like would rather be anywhere else and the other two men at the table were sponsors who had went out of their way to sit with Jyn.

“I am Chirrut Imwe, and this is my husband, Baze,” the blind man said, introducing himself at dinner. “We asked if we could sit with you, Jyn.”

She would have usually taken offense to someone just using her name without permission but when she looked at the man she instantly learned that he was blind. He was a sweet man in a very nice tux, and his husband was sitting next to him and looked like Kay- wishing he could be literally anywhere else. Jyn liked him.

“You’re fans of boxing?” Bodhi tried, wishing for the awkwardness of the table to go away.

“He is,” Baze grunted, tugging at his collar, refusing to wear a tie or a bowtie it seemed.

“He used to be in love with boxing,” Imwe said, smiling brightly.

“Are you going to the match on the 2nd?” Jyn asked, looking between them.

“We’re going to see you win, yes.” Baze said.

Jyn looked at him.

“You think I am going to win?”

“If you don’t win he owes me ten bucks,” Imwe laughed, hitting the table with his palm.

The two old men were adorable and Jyn loved them instantly. She especially liked Baze and she was grateful that they had little small talk between them. They were instant friends who didn’t need to talk. Dinner ended soon enough and the dancing started, Bodhi asked by several young women to dance and he was surprised when Jyn just shrugged. She wasn’t much of a dancer.

When she was small and her mother had hopes she would choose a safer profession, she made Jyn take things she deemed “respectable for a young lady” which included gymnastics, ballet, tap dance and forms of ballroom dancing. She’d hated all of them and had not really retained much of it. Ballet was the only useful tool for balance in the ring.  
She looked over where Cassian was sitting and saw that he was still sitting alone, watching her table and she wondered if she had the courage to get up and go over there. Not to dance, but to just be with him. But she was pretty sure she couldn’t do it. She was still thinking about it when a woman walked through the room and went right up to Cassian. He looked startled by her appearance and she smiled at him, speaking but Jyn couldn’t hear what was being said. Cassian looked at her and she looked away, not wanting to show she had been staring. He stood up awkwardly and moved after the woman, tugging on his jacket.  
\---  
Cassian looked over at Jyn and saw her talking to Bodhi and felt like this was a terrible idea. He followed Eruopa through the crowd just as a Samba was starting. He felt the music flow through him just like when he was a kid. He felt the movements come naturally. He looked at Europa and decided that he didn’t want to know if Jyn was looking at him right now or not. He wished she wasn’t.

He moved and took Eruopa by the hand, and they began to Samba on the floor. Luckily it was one of the many dances he was good at. He liked it also because it had minimal contact. She was a good dancer too, and she looked great on the floor. Unfortunately she was a little too good and people in the crowd were watching them. Jyn looked up from her table, unable to help herself. She watched Cassian move. He was concentrating so hard, like he did when he was yelling her from ringside. It was like everything he did with intensity unsurpassed by anyone she knew. He was not enjoying himself, that much she knew and she was secretly grateful. This dance with this woman was just a challenge he was meeting, it had nothing to do with feelings. She watched him as he swung her around and they danced together. Kay looked at her.

“You look like you want to dance,” he said and she glared at him.

“Not with you.”

“I’d rather throw myself off a bridge rather than dance with you. I meant with Cassian.”

“I don’t want to dance with anyone.”

“Sure,” he said flatly and instead watched her squirm in her seat as if she was really wrestling with the idea and honestly it was best time he was having in a while. He liked watching Jyn Erso struggle. It was fun.

“You know, the girl he’s with is Europa. Her brother used to be one of Cassian’s boxers.”

She snapped her head in his direction now, giving her full attention.

“What?”

“Yeah, a few years ago, the guy broke his arm and Cassian had to put him down gently, the guy was never going to box again. His sister must still be coming to these things, I heard he turned into a promoter or something. That’d be the reason why she is so happy to see Cassian again.”

The dance reached its peak and Jyn looked over to see them finish, and the audience applauded. Eruopa went in and kissed Cassian on the cheek but he didn’t return the smile or the favor and Jyn looked at Imwe.

“Watch my seat.”

She stood up and without even looking back she marched across the dance floor where Europa was walking away from Cassian and she stood right in front of him, trying to reach her full height. Honestly, everyone in the room might have thought she was going to knock him down but instead she said in a low voice.

“Dance with me next.”

“W-What?” he blurted out, heart starting to pound in his chest as she looked around and the couples were getting back together for what looked like a ballroom dance.

“Dance with me, now.”

A command. He couldn’t ignore her. He just nodded and held out his hands, unsure of what to do. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his shoulder and his hand, gripping it like she might break it. But he held tough and hastily put a hand on the small of her back. He didn’t even think to ask her if she knew what she was doing.

The music began and it was a ballroom song, and he started to spin. He felt her hold on tight, but she didn’t let up or let her own fumbling slow them down as they went around the dance floor together. Cassian had to start concentrating again to keep from falling over, and he made a face as he spun her around and then they parted, moving a little but never breaking hands, as they came back together. Jyn was not exactly the most graceful dancer, but she was managing. She didn’t let her slip ups keep her from keeping up with him and sure it wasn’t the best dance of her life, but it was certainly very quick and powerful.

The song quickly ended and Jyn and Cassian stopped, still holding onto each other and they realized they were both wheezing a little. They were good for a thirty second fight but apparently not enough for a three minute song. They were about to speak when a tango started. And Jyn was not about to let a challenge die. That Europa got to dance once. Jyn was going to dance twice. And this time she was going to look Cassian in the eye.

And for some reason she thought it fitting that they were going to tango because that was the only thing she was good at in dance classes. Why? Her teacher made the mistake of letting her know that Tango was basically a power dance and usually looked like a fight. So she used to dominate all the boys and girls in her class, wanting to prove to them she was the best. So Cassian was in for it now.

He looked her in the eye and he knew that if he looked away first she wouldn’t respect him anymore. So he was going to just have to take Al Pachino’s advice and if he got tangled up he was just going to have to tango on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched so many videos of tangos and ballroom dancing to get into the mood for these chapters. And of course watched Diego Luna in Havannah Nights because he is too precious. I just ignored the blonde girl and thought of a young Jyn instead.


	8. Bitter Love Born From Bitter Hate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry my story was put on hold for a second, I was busy writing my prompts for RebelCaptain Week and completely forgot to update this.

Kay could say never in his life had ever witnessed what he was witnessing in that moment. Bodhi had stopped dancing after the ballroom because he was not the greatest dancer had gone to sit down, surprised to see Jyn on the floor. And a quick look to Draven and Mon Mothma showed that everyone in the Alliance gym was watching this display. Even Leia Organa looked impressed from her table.

“Oh man,” Kay sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He knew that there was no way Cassian was going to back down either. So apparently the fighter of the evening and her coach were going to just forget that there were other people here and just go for it. And so the tango started.

If you could call what they were doing a tango. It was a bitter battle and they were neither backing down. Jyn held tight onto Cassian, moving and dancing, not looking from his eyes. They were moving so fast around the floor that the other couples stopped and moved away, watching them. Despite their clear intense focus, they were actually doing pretty good. Kay looked at Bodhi and leaned in.

“I think you need to take her home after this.”

“Is something going on?” Imwe asked pleasantly and his husband leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Ah… I see. Wonderful!” Baze rolled his eyes.

Kay looked at Draven, now standing and walking over to Han, whispering in his ear and looking stern. Han shrugged and Leia looked away from the dancing, asking a question. When it seemed that she got an unsatisfactory answer she stood up and grabbed Han by the jacket, ripped him out of his seat and got a roll of the eyes from her brother, trying to finish his meal in peace.

“What is going on now?” Kay muttered to himself. Leia apparently decided that she didn’t like Draven’s attitude and had dragged Han to the floor to… tango. Yup, that was what she was doing and apparently Han didn’t really have a say in the matter because they were doing it before Kay could even think they might not.

Jyn and Cassian were moving now more powerful and stern than before, swinging around and looking like they were almost professional for a moment. And then just as rapidly as the dance was going, the song ended and they stopped and they were inches away from each other, breathing hard. Cassian breathed her bangs from her cheek and was holding onto her as if he let go she might disappear.

“Jyn,” he barely whispered, and she stared at him, waiting for him to keep talking.

The room burst into applause and he broke eye contact and looked around, suddenly remembering that they weren’t alone and spotted the outraged face of Draven in the corner. He slowly lowered Jyn’s hand let go of her, looking at the ground.

“Coward,” she muttered and let him go, walking away from him and leaving the room without another look back.

And he knew he was.  
\---  
The gala produced three results. Cassian Andor knew that he was in love with Jyn Erso. And Jyn Erso now understood that she loved Cassian Andor.

The third result was a secret understanding that Kay was not to mention either facts even though now literally everyone in the entire world probably knew it. He went up to Cassian after Jyn left the dinner, Bodhi ever the gentleman, escorting her out.

“So… I am pretty sure I am not allowed to talk about what just happened.”

“Not now, Kay,” Cassian said, running his hands over his face and wishing he could calm down.

“I understand,” his friend said, and looked at Draven coming over.

“What in the hell was that? You are supposed to be her coach, not getting her in trouble. The paper tomorrow is going to have her and Leia Organa on the cover, dancing the tango with pretty boys as if it was the real fight going on! You’re embrassing us! Either get it together or I am cutting Jyn Erso loose and getting a real fighter in here.”

Draven left before Cassian could say anything and Kay looked at him.

“Something tells me you didn’t tell Jyn that Draven didn’t want her in the first place.”

“Shut up, K.”  
\---  
Jyn Erso went home, took off her dress and punched a bag for a good hour before she was calm again. She had done it again. In that moment, on that dance floor, inches away from Cassian she had wanted to pull him close, and kiss him harder than he’d ever been kissed in his stupid life and it got messed up. She was so angry right now.  
She had a fight with Leia Organa. She needed to focus on that. Three weeks and she was going to be in the ring for real. She had this important shot. She took up her phone and she called her father for the first time since she got her job.

“Stardust,” her father said, surprised to get her phone call.

“Papa,” she said, sitting down on the floor, annoyed that Cassian was right about getting a couch.

“Is everything alright?”

“Huh, no- yeah, everything is good- I am working with a gym and I have that fight coming up. Just getting ready for it. I was just at a fancy gala. Mama would have loved it,” she said, and regretted it. She knew that they didn’t talk about her mother. “I uh, even wore a dress that was decent.”

“That’s great, I am glad that things are looking up. I am looking forward to the fight! I am making all of my students watch it!”

“Please don’t do that,” she begged but he wouldn’t listen.

“Too proud. Can’t wait to see you fight.”

“Hey… Papa…” she said, tugging on her pants.

“Yes?”

“When did you know that you loved Mama?”

He seemed to be quiet for an eternity. And then he spoke. “Probably when she told me that I was going to need to stop playing with that flux capacitor in my car and help her work on hers.”

He was referring to how they met. Her car had died overnight and needed a jump and he was dressed like a total nerd, dropping his notes everywhere. She had come up to him and demanded that he help her jump her car. Lyra had even asked him on a date because he was so nervous.

“She was a true beauty and I never can forget how stupid I must have looked, dropping my keys over and over again and hitting my head on her car’s hood.”

Jyn smiled. A rarity for her, but it was one. Her father went quiet, as if reliving the moment had put him somewhere else for a moment but then he was back.

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?” he asked, now curious. Jyn didn’t hide anything from her father- not after the incident. She needed to be honest no matter what.

“I think I might be in love with someone and I was just wondering how you might know when it happens.”

The long pause would have probably indicated a dropped call, but it was simply Galen Erso attempting to process the idea of his daughter being interested in anyone. Even as a young teenager she hated the idea of dating really anyone. Her mother had tried to ask if Jyn might think she liked girls instead of boys but it turned out she just didn’t have much time to think about it and didn’t want to be bothered by it.

“A-Ah, I see,” her father managed and she smiled again.

“You didn’t think it would ever happen,” Jyn said, knowing what he was thinking. He coughed a little to hide his annoyance at the question.

“Ah, well, I am just glad that you are telling me,” he said, and she wanted to say more but decided she was done talking.

“Well, I will let you know what happens,” she said, and he took that as the sign that yes, this conversation was very much over. He nodded and told her to sleep well, Stardust and that he was excited about her fight.

She hung up and went to bed, dreaming of punching Kay in the face.  
\---  
Cassian didn’t sleep. He couldn’t. Every time he got close her remembered the way Jyn had looked in that dress and he was upright and wishing he could just die. She had called him a coward because he hadn’t taken that chance. He was. But what was strange about that was it sounded to Cassian like Jyn had wanted him to do something. He walked in circles in his apartment, cursing and walking through everything in Spanish, hoping for a different outcome but it was all the same. He had already determined rather quickly that he was in love. But like he had already decided- Jyn needed to be focused on being a fighter. She needed to be in the ring.

And he needed to remember that he wasn’t worth her time.

So he got forty minutes of sleep, took long shower to wake himself up and went to work.  
\---  
Jyn was confused. This wasn’t the man she had shared those moments last night. This was a coach. Cold, calculating, soul-less. This was Cassian Andor, not the man who had held onto her for dear life the night before.

“Get moving,” he said stiffly, now looking at her with cool indifference. Apparently that was how it was going to be. Two could play at that game.

“Sure, coach,” she said flatly, dropping her bag on the ground and without even bothering to go to the locker room she started taking off her shirt, throwing it down on the ground. Cassian looked away, remaining neutral but there was a crack. She kicked off her shoes and moved to the ring, grabbing a handful of chalk and getting ready to go. 

Cassian watched her climb inside and Kay was there, working on his own movements.

“Ah, you again,” he said, and she glared.

“Me again.”

“Come on, move it,” Cassian said, and Kay looked surprised. Apparently this behavior had not been discussed between the two men and at least that was a little comforting to Jyn. Kay was on the outside just as much as she was.

“Well, then,” he said, grabbing his gloves and putting them on as Jyn stretched. She made a point to look directly at Cassian as she did so, not letting him off so easily.

“I liked Bohdi Rook, he was a nice guy,” she said in a flat voice, and Kay looked at her.

“Really? I kind of thought you didn’t pay him that much attention-”

“He was nice and he took me home too, like a gentleman,” she said, not taking her eyes off of Cassian, who was staring right back at her. Kay sighed and rolled his eyes. Really?   
They were going to do this right now?

“I am glad you got home safe,” Cassian said back, but it sounded less concerned and more annoyed.

“Bodhi was so nice. I wonder if I should ask him out to dinner to thank him,” she said, and that struck a real nerve. The neutral expression disappeared instantly and Cassian was moved to the ropes.

“You need to be focusing on your fight, not astronaut pilots,” he said, and she felt satisfied that he was clearly jealous but refusing to admit it. She stood up, going to the ropes and glaring at him smugly.

“I wonder what happened to my coach after our fun filled evening,” she said and Kay sighed, set down his gloves and sat in the corner, watching.

“I went home, alone, because I have work to do, work you don’t take seriously,” he countered and she threw down her gloves, crossing her arms. It was strange, Kay thought to himself, usually she would get ready to deck him, not put up a barrier. He just took a drink from his water bottle and watched the verbal spar.

“I don’t just show up here for fun. I am here to be a fighter and I am going to win my match. Get a nice big sponsorship and move on.”

“Yes, well, estrella, if you are going to do that you need to actually learn how to fight,” he said, taking pot shots now to get her riled up. She didn’t quite take the bait. But she was edging closer. How was it two people knew how to hurt each other so quickly? Was this what people were like when they were in relationships? She wondered if her father had ever felt that vulnerable around her mother.

“Start working, coach,” she said, spitting the last word at him and he was about to speak but she beat him to it, “What I said last night wasn’t too far off the mark, huh?”

That really brought about the anger he had been trying to suppress. But Cassian didn’t get louder, he only got quieter and she wasn’t sure what was worse. He leaned in so close, his breath on her face as he growled.

“What?”

“You heard me,” she said, barely audible but he clearly did.

“I am a lot of things, but I am not a coward,” he said, so dangerously low that the intense beating of her heart almost drowned him out. It was like their dance all over again. He was not backing down just as much as she wasn’t.

“Oh, come on the both of you- if you don’t get moving Draven is going to get Little Miss Sunshine kicked out of here before noon.”

Kay did not mean to say that last comment out loud. That was meant to be inside of his very thick, very stupid skull. The entire room suddenly became cold and he felt himself scramble to his feet, trying to apologize for talking but it was too late.

Cassian closed his eyes, all anger disappeared and intense self-loathing finding itself replacing it. Jyn looked at Kay like she was going to find a gun and shoot him with it.

“What?”

“Uh, I uh-”

She looked at Cassian. The look on his face- the fact that he wasn’t speaking. Jyn stared at him like she had the night before. Like they were strangers who had been in this thing and didn’t know what to do with it.

“Draven… Draven wants me gone… and you were going to help him?”

The words came out choked and harsh and she took a step back but didn’t give in. She looked at him in a way Cassian wished he had never seen. She was so broken hearted it was impossible to describe the ache in his chest.

“I am supposed to get you ready to fight in three weeks and if you don’t win, Draven will have a reason to cancel your contract and go with someone else.”

He said it slow and steady, as if trying to explain it to himself and not just her. Kay had managed to scramble his way down to the ground level and was searching for something to use in case Jyn got violent again. From the way Cassian was now- he wouldn’t defend himself. He’d let Jyn hit him as much as she wanted.

“You know what happened to me,” she said, and he saw tears beginning to form. He had never seen her like this.

“Y-You know what happened that put me here- what I’ve had to go through,” she said, and he remembered the fact that he had her file on his laptop. He looked her in the eye.

“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one who lost everything, Jyn.”

He didn’t know why he needed her to understand but he did. The words were just coming out in a way he hated. It was too raw. She glared at him.

“I was eighteen when I was told that I would never be able to do the only thing I knew how. That I needed to find something else. My entire future was ripped away from me in an instant and I had to live with that for a long time. But now that you’re future that you created for yourself is in jeopardy you expect us to all feel sorry for you?”

Why was he being mean? Why was he doing this? Where was all of this even coming from? Cassian had no idea. All of these things he never talked about, these feelings about his injury, his lot in life, his feelings for Jyn and the Alliance. Everything that had happened in his short twenty-six years came pouring out of him at this moment and it was destroying the only person he’d ever truly loved and it was killing him. But he didn’t stop.

“I stood up and I did something about it. I got back on my feet.”

“You can’t talk your way around this,” she said quietly and he looked at her with that same intense need he did when he wanted to lean in and touch her.

“I don’t have to.”

He left her with that and left through the front doors and Jyn felt her knees go weak. She slowly sat down next to her fallen gloves, too proud to cry in front of everyone there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jyn and Cassain always have the best fights, honestly, they have such great raw emotion. Loved writing this fight tbh


	9. I Believe In You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, we're in the home stretch! Jyn and Cassian fighting- getting in each other's business. Now for some aftermath!!!

Cassian did the one thing he’d thought he would never do in the eight years he’d been a coach. He went home to his dusty old bag in the small workout room he’d had but rarely bothered using and he hit the old thing until his knee begged him to stop. He sat down with his back to the wall and closed his eyes.

What in the ever living fuck had he been thinking?

He touched his forehead, closing his eyes and all he could imagine was Jyn’s eyes, glassy from tears and looking like the most fragile thing in the entire world. He had wanted to grab her and hug her. But he’d been so angry and she was fantastic at bringing out the best and worst in him.

He had ignored the several missed calls from the gym and Kay.

He went to bed and slept in the middle of the day for the first time in a long while and woke up about three in the morning to his phone violently screaming at him.

“Si,” he muttered, not even looking at the caller ID before answering in his grogginess. The only people who called him in the middle of the night were his parents on occasion.

“Cassian! Thank god,” Kay said, saying something over his shoulder.

“Kay,” Cassian grumbled, looking at the time, “What is it?”

“Not to throw you into a panic, but it would seem that Jyn might be in jail.”

Cassian bolted upright.

“What?” he demanded.

“Get your ass down to the gym, right now!” Kay said, clearly freaking out.

Cassian grabbed a clean shirt and hurried out of the apartment, not even remembering if he locked it or not. All he could think of was Jyn in that towel.

Everyone had made fun of that picture. The pretty little fighter, wearing nothing but a towel to prison. Cassian had found that picture and he saw something else. He saw a scared woman who had realized all at once the terrible mistakes that had brought her to that moment. He had seen her pain and regret and relief that no one had been hurt.  
\---

Jyn Erso was in jail once again. Something about sitting behind a wall of bars surrounded by drunks and prostitutes at three in the morning really brought everything into perspective.

The events leading up to this moment perhaps was the most important. After Cassian had left, Jyn couldn’t move for about fifteen minutes and then finally she got up, grabbed her things, got on her bike and left. Kay had tried to talk to her but she couldn’t hear him. The swirling feelings in her head and chest were clashing and she was lost for a long time. She just kind of rode around LA for hours. She finally had to stop to actually get gas, and suddenly she actually looked up to see that it was almost midnight. Had she really been riding around that much? Had that much time passed?

She started thinking about her situation as she filled up, looking at people passing by.

She couldn’t blame Draven for not trusting her. She was a train wreck and he was at least honest about it.

She couldn’t blame Kay because he was a big mouthed idiot who didn’t understand impulse control.

All she could do was blame Cassian.

And herself.

She had let herself believe for a few brief seconds, those seconds in that ring with him, that there was a future worth fighting for. A future where she could kiss him and tell him   
that she loved him. But it was lost and the pain of that loss weighed heavy on her. She thought of that Beyonce/Lady Gaga video. Trust was like a broken mirror, you could repair it but that crack was still in that mother effing reflection.

Could she ever trust Cassian now?

And as she stood there, thinking about it all, it dawned on her that the thing that was eating at her and scared her more than anything- she’d forgiven him the moment she’d learned the truth. She was so used to being so angry all of the time that she didn’t understand that she had been, if anything, disappointed in him for not just telling the truth from the beginning.

And unfortunately, this brought her back to the real problem. The whole, I am clearly still in love with Cassian Andor problem. It was still a problem. She was still in love with the idiot.

And now she had to think about the major problems with that. Three weeks until she fought with Leia Organa. She had to fight to stay with Alliance Gym. She had to make sure that she got her career back on track. Three weeks to get her life together? She hadn’t even known Cassian, what, two weeks and she was already falling apart?

She finished getting her gas when she decided that going the whole day without eating wasn’t the greatest choice and parked her bike in front of the small gas station and went inside. The area was heavily Hispanic American so she wasn’t surprised to find she was the only white girl there. She went in and heard many conversations in Spanish. She knew a few words and phrases but honestly she struggled with Spanish and was starting to wonder if she was getting better subtly because of all of the times she heard Cassian muttering under his breath. He tended to only use Spanish when he was annoyed which when he was around Jyn was quite a bit.

She was grabbing a few things when she heard two men bothering a young girl. They were two car mechanics, wearing dirty, greasy uniforms, probably getting off work late after a night in the bar and were already pretty drunk. The girl was a college age and trying to get something to keep her awake to study. She had been ignoring the two men her entire trip to the store but now they were harassing her at the counter. Despite the man at the counter trying to get them to buy their things and leave, it was falling on deaf ears.  
Jyn grabbed a bottle of Vodka, a few bags of chips and walked to the counter, throwing her things down as the other, younger cashier, attempted to put her things into a bag.

“Hey mami,” one of the drunk mechanics said, turning and looking at her. She glared back. He said something in Spanish but by his tone she knew that he was saying something like “you should smile more” and she glared back.

The girl grabbed her bag, trying to get by them and head for the door but they only followed her, leaving their stuff on the counter and the man at the cash register muttered something along the lines of calling the cops but that might mean trouble. She paid for her stuff, left the chips on the counter and grabbed the bottle. She didn’t drink and drive- never again was she ever going to do that. She just needed a nice heavy weapon.

She followed the men outside and saw the girl trying to unlock her car but they were on her now, touching her.

“Hey, dipshits, leave her alone,” she said, standing right outside the front door. A few people who had been standing near the corner looked over, smoking and talking amongst themselves. The two men looked at her and the girl hurried to get into her car, locking it behind her. The men turned to her.

“Just get your drunk asses back into your car and we’ll just part in peace,” she said, but didn’t let her grip on the bottle in her hand loosen.

If she was going to fight she had to be careful. Cassian would disapprove of her hurting herself right before her big fight. The thought of his disappointed face haunted her thoughts as she imagined ruining everything she had going for her because she let some assholes break a finger or hand. She needed to be careful.

“Bitch, we weren’t bothering no one,” one of the men said, stepping forward as his partner backed him up. She saw his name on his jumper.

“Look Carlos, I don’t want any trouble,” she said, and noticed that the people on the corner were coming over to watch or maybe help? She saw a cell phone- no they were here to watch.

“Ai, mami, why don’t you just run along home,” the other one said, and she glared at them both. The distracted thought of Cassian and his disapproval were now pushed back out of her mind to think about how to properly beat the shit out of two assholes harassing a poor girl at a gas station in the middle of the night.

The fight was not long. Carlos attacked her first and she used the vodka bottle as a means of breaking his arm, pulling him in and jabbing hard into his nose, breaking it too. This was about hitting them hard and fast. Carlos fell to the ground, screaming in pain as blood came flowing out and his arm was severally injured. The other one came at her after a too long of a moment’s hesitation and she used the bottle to hit him in the chest and then the arm, knocking his knee and slamming the hard glass bottle on the back of his head.   
He fell too and just as she was about to walk away, the cops showed up. Apparently the men behind the counter had decided to do something after all.

But because she was holding a weapon and standing over a pair of crying men, Jyn was arrested.

Sure, the woman in her car explained everything but not until she was already in a holding cell, waiting for someone to come and get her. It was humiliating as the officers saw her and took a few pictures, good for getting a little extra cash. She couldn’t blame any of them, though, it was a good time to make some money.

She closed her eyes, pressing her forehead into the bars. The only thing she could think of was Cassian. He would have been so disappointed in her. She was back here in this mess and there was no way Draven would keep her in the gym now. He was probably getting a hold of Mon Mothma right now to cancel her contract. Jyn had been given the chance to make a call and she thought of the only person who would never judge her for being locked up- Han.

He was at home sleeping and not pleased to get the call at two in the morning and he did the smart thing and instantly broke it to the press, getting as much media attention as he could manage. This may have sucked but he was the king of any publicity was good publicity.

He was going to be coming to get her soon and she didn’t like sitting there waiting.

A door opened and she looked up to find an officer coming in.

“Jyn Erso,” he called, and she straightened. He pushed a button on the control console and the doors opened, he let her out.

“Someone is here to pick you up,” he said, and stepped aside to let her pass. Dread filled her. Who was it going to be? Who was going to be the person she was going to have to face first?

She was led through the precinct and people whispered as she passed but she remained glaring as she walked, her neutral stance on anything. She was not going to let them see her panic or worry. She was stopped towards the front of the precinct where booking was. They returned her necklace, car keys, and wallet, the only things she had with her.

“The men aren’t going to be pressing charges,” the woman behind the desk said, meaning the two men she’d kicked the shit out of. They were probably too embarrassed. She didn’t do anything but nodded and then heard her name. Of all of the people in the world she was expecting, Kay was surely not it.

He came over and grabbed her by the arm.

“Come on,” he said, pulling her away from the desk and back towards a hallway.

“Kay? What are you doing here?” she asked, surprised to see him. 

“Mon Mothma sent me, she wanted someone that no one would really recognize from the gym,” he said, clearly not bothered about that. He pushed her through a back door. “Han told everyone where you were being held, there are reporters everywhere,” he said, leading her to his car in the back alley, “Get in.”

He got in and explained everything that had happened. After she had gotten arrested, the video went viral and she called Han, who called the gym and the press, getting her name everywhere. Everyone had seen the video now and it was crazy popular, hailing her as a hero for defending that young woman in her car. She was surprised but said nothing.

He went quiet and then looked at her. He knew what she wanted to ask but she couldn’t bring herself too.

“Cassian is at your apartment, waiting,” he said, and she looked at him, not speaking. “He said that you need to work on your street fighting.”

She cracked a small smile, the first one all day.

They drove in silence and intense dread overcame her. He was going to take her home and she didn’t want to see Cassian. Not right now. Everything was too raw. She closed her eyes as they pulled up the back side, she assumed that the press would be out front in the morning but Kay didn’t want to risk it.

“I’ll come get you in the morning, Mon Mothma wants to have a press conference. Leia Organa is going to probably be there to capitalize on the publicity.”

She didn’t care. She just nodded and got out. She felt each step pulling her down. Cassian was here. Waiting. What would he say? What would he do? How was she going to face him? Sure, Kay had made her smile, but Cassian had to be angry with her. She put herself at risk. She could have really hurt herself, or worse, ruined her fragile image. She made it to the top of the stairs and Cassian was pacing back and forth in front of her door. She thought about running but he saw her and stopped.

“Jyn,” he said and before she could do anything, he was marching towards her. She stood there, waiting for the lecture, the angry yelling and for the first time she wasn’t going to fight him on it. But instead he stopped and looked her over, muttering to himself in Spanish again and she was sure she heard the word “estùpido” before he suddenly reached out and pulled her into a tight hug.

This night sure was full of surprises.

“Thank god, you’re okay,” he said, and she found herself hugging him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jyn getting in trouble and landing back in jail is my favorite thing. Like I think in modern day she would be in lock up so much she'd know the guards' names.


	10. Can't Go Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the slow update- I just got a new job and had to jump through multiple hoops with my old one and its been nuts. But here we are!!!!

Chapter Ten

Can’t Go Alone

Cassian had been the one to suggest Kay pick up Jyn. Everyone at the gym was freaking out about the video but Mon Mothma was ever the opportunist and spun it to look good for the gym. She, Draven and the others were all gathered, trying to figure out what to do. When Han Solo had broken it to the press, she decided to take full advantage. She agreed with sending Kay to pick her up and bring her home, setting up a press conference for the following day to explain what had happened- it was expected. She told Cassain to go to Jyn’s apartment- he would have to coach her on what to say and it was probably not the greatest idea to leave her alone. He would have thought that nice if he didn’t get her secret meaning that he was supposed to go and check to make sure that Jyn didn’t get any injuries that might interfere with her fight in three weeks.

But he wasn’t going to complain.

He made it to her apartment and thought about going inside but he wanted to see Jyn as soon as she came up the stairs. He needed to see that she was okay first. He waited and got the text from Kay that he was on his way with Jyn from leaving the police station and Cassian tried to think of what he might say.

He wanted to lecture her big time. What in the hell had she been thinking? He wanted to know if she was okay, was she hurt? Did the cops give her a hard time? Did she need anything?

But the moment he saw her he forgot everything he had been thinking about and all he felt was pure relief. She was okay. She stared at him, and he just moved on his own. He needed to do something. He stopped in front of her, and thought out loud he was so stupid, and then he hugged her.

“Thank god, you’re okay,” he said, the only thing he really could think to say. She was okay. He hugged her harder than he meant to, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“I am okay,” she whispered and he let her go a little, touching her face and then her shoulders, looking her over, making sure that she didn’t have anything wrong with her. She just stared at him and he looked back at her face. She didn’t look hurt. He didn’t expect two idiots who clearly had never fought a day in their lives to inflict any real damage but he was relieved to find that he could be reassured she was physically fine. He looked at her face and touched her cheeks.

“Jyn,” he said quietly and didn’t even think about it before he leaned and kissed her. It was short and quick, but he had to do it. Jyn stared at him now, wide eyed and he realized he probably shouldn’t have and he looked away. “S-Sorry, I was just-”

“Shut up,” she said, and grabbed the back of his head, making him come down to her as she stood almost on her tiptoes to kiss him. He had been quick and gentle but Jyn didn’t know anything but power and hunger. She kissed him hard and he did not mind.

He grabbed her waist, not realizing until this moment how incredibly small she was. It seemed that every time they were together she seemed so much more powerful and big. He kissed her back, and she shoved him against the door of her apartment. Jyn suddenly broke their kiss and realized she had accidentally knocked him into the door.

“Sorry,” she whispered, breathing hard. He just grinned and she looked at the door. She got her key before she could say anything else. She pushed him inside and closed it behind her. Jyn kissed him again before he could say anything else and this time he was ready for it.

He pulled on her leather jacket, letting it fall on the floor as she dropped her keys, running her fingers through his thick black hair. She pushed him towards her bedroom, where her sad mattress was still on the floor but Cassian didn’t seem too worried. She pushed him away from her again, and this time it was so she could pull off her shirt. She looked the same as she had in the ring and he took in a sharp breath. The fight from this morning was long forgotten but the raw emotion wasn’t. And honestly? He’d been struggling with watching her dressed like that and bouncing around the ring, taunting him. Now it was worse because she was actually smiling at him and his heart felt like it might explode in his chest from overuse. 

Jyn pushed him down on the mattress by his shoulders and climbed onto him, kissing him again as he touched her back and spine, feeling the thin fabric between them. She managed to wrestle off his jacket and started working on his belt when a knock came to her front door. She growled and before Cassian could say anything she sat up and yelled.

“What?” and he had to touch a hand to his mouth to keep from laughing.

“Uh, yes, don’t mean to interrupt,” Kay’s muffled voice said from the other side of the door, “But you forgot your phone… so… okay. I’ll just leave it here, then.”

She got up and marched over to the door, swinging it open and he jumped, squeaking a little.

“U-Uh, sorry, so- here,” he said, looking away as she snatched her phone, probably left in his car. He didn’t look into the apartment out of embarrassment and she just glared.

“Thank you, Kay.”

“Yup, okay, have a good… night,” he said and hurried away before she could kill him with her stare.

She closed the door and looked over to see Cassian was now laughing so hard he was hiding his face in her mattress. She tried not to but she managed to crack a smile and set her phone down on the counter. She walked over and he smiled, sitting up and she sat down on the floor, right next to the mattress.

“You thought that was funny?” she asked and he nodded, unable to keep from grinning.

“Kay is really bad at timing,” he said and looked at her necklace hanging loosely around her neck. He slowly stopped smiling and became quiet. “I am sorry… for this morning.”  
She looked him over and she nodded.

“I know.”

He looked down but she wasn’t about to let him think. Right now they were going to do something much better with their time. She leaned in and kissed him, climbing onto his lap and he didn’t get the chance to say anything else.  
\---  
The sun filtered through the window and Cassian squinted, blinking awake as he groaned a little. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor had not been something he’d done since he was living back in Mexico when he was at a friend’s house who broke his bed jumping on it the night before. So he was a little sore. That and for other reasons.

He blinked and turned away from the window, looking around and remembering where he was after a few moments. He was lying on his side, and next to him, still sleeping was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Cassian closed his eyes and for a moment he was totally at peace. But then his phone rang loudly and he sighed. He sat up and stretched, finding his pants a little further away and he answered. Jyn stirred and slowly opened her eyes, looking around. She saw Cassian and sat up, the only thing on her bed was a sheet and she covered herself up a little, and he turned and smiled at her.

“Yeah, okay, we’ll be there soon,” he said, hanging up and turned. “Morning,” he said and leaned in, kissing her. She kissed him back and smiled.

“Morning,” she said. “What was that?”

“Ah, duty calls. Kay said that I am to get you to the press conference, he is stuck in traffic.”

“I don’t want to go,” she said, laying back down and putting her face in her pillow. He smiled and kissed her shoulder.

“We gotta,” he said, and got up, not bothering to worry about modesty now and went to her bathroom. She sighed and sat up, hearing the shower turn on and she grabbed the first shirt she could find in her closet and threw it on, going to see if there was anything to eat in her godforsaken kitchen.

This entire morning was honestly a complete first for Jyn.

She had never really been the type to date a guy. She just usually walked up to them in bars or clubs said “Sex?” and that usually did the trick. Then they would be gone before she went to sleep. This whole, staying through the night and sleeping peacefully next to someone- not that Cassian was just someone. Was this what normal people did? She didn’t say she hated it- it certainly was new to her.

Cassian came out of the bathroom wearing a towel and his hair slicked back, and Jyn was pretty sure that if she wasn’t holding onto the counter she might have fallen over.

“Do you have anything to wear for the press conference?” he asked and she made a face. Really? He wanted to get into coach mode now?

“Yeah, clothes,” she replied flatly and he sighed.

“Jyn,” he said, coming over and standing near her and she looked away, trying to ignore him which was proving incredibly difficult. “Han is going to write a statement, which you will ignore and say whatever you want, but please make sure that it’s heartfelt at least?”

She didn’t want to but he somehow knew how to make her smile.

“I’ll answer their questions and sit there, happy?” she asked and he smiled at her, leaning in and kissing her, cupping her cheeks. She touched his waist just above the towel and kissed him back. He broke the kiss and nodded.

“I am happy.”

She stared at him- pretty sure her face was on fire because that was probably the most sincere thing anyone had ever said to her and she was grateful that they were now completely open with each other. Their fight, their very intense make up and now this morning after? They knew where they stood and she was pretty sure she could get her ass handed to her by Leia Organa on national television and it still wouldn’t dampen her mood right now.

“Me too,” she said quietly, knowing that there wasn’t anything else to say. She wasn’t great with words. She was better with action. She turned and looked at the fridge. He kissed her lightly on the forehead and went to get dressed.  
\---  
Cassian Andor was practically beaming and Jyn Erso looked ready to commit murder. Kay was really unsure what exactly had taken place last night but he was going to have to say his congratulations later.

“You finally made it,” he said, crossing his arms. Cassian had driven them to the arena where the fight was going to be held in a few weeks, the place chosen to have the press conference. They had been outside already with press everywhere and Jyn had adopted her usual stance of anyone gets in her way she would punch them out.

“Good to see you too,” Jyn said through gritted teeth and shoved past him and Cassian patted him on the shoulder good naturedly.

“She is really warming up to you, I can tell,” Cassian joked and Kay really knew that things had gone well. Cassian never joked unless he was in a really, really good mood.

They went into the green room where Han, Draven, and Mon Mothma (including her little assistant) were waiting for her. She was wearing her leather jacket and a shirt that said “Fuck the Media” (despite Cassian’s insistence that she in fact should not) and looked between them.

“What?”

“Cassian, is she okay?” Draven asked, walking over to him and talking in a low voice.

“She didn’t get hurt and she seems to be at a hundred percent,” he replied, and was grateful that Draven just nodded and didn’t notice that the coach was wearing the same outfit as the day before.

“Good,” he said and moved back to the group, where Cassian was hearing Jyn refusing Han’s statement.

“I don’t care that those assholes want to press charges now, fuck them,” Jyn said and Cassian walked up behind her, just behind her so she knew he was there.

“They just want money,” Kay said, crossing his arms and looking bored.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll pay it.”

“No, those assholes can die in a hole for all I care,” Jyn said, crossing her arms.

“I couldn’t agree more,” a voice said and they turned to see Leia Organa and her brother, smiling brightly. She was wearing a white shirt and jeans, her brother dressed in black, carrying her gym bag and waving. Han hurried over to his real favorite girl and gushed over her for a moment. She ignored him and walked up to Jyn.

“I saw that video,” she said, looking at Jyn. They were exactly the same height, and exuded power. “I thought it was great, the way you stood up for that girl. Like you said, those losers shouldn’t get anything from you but your respect,” she said, holding out a hand. Jyn just nodded her thanks and took the hand offered and shook it.

“Alright, let’s do that in front of the cameras next time, alright?” Han asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leia is so cool. I just love her so much.


	11. The Night Before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Fight is almost here!!!!

Chapter Eleven

The Night Before

The next two weeks were a blur of media attention, her video going viral and her general displeasure at the entire event. Jyn didn’t face any other problems as she resumed her training and now had even more longing glances between herself and Cassian. The two of them had silently agreed that they needed to focus on getting her ready for the fight- there would be talk about everything else afterwards. Win or lose, they were going to figure out what they were going to do.

It was strange, for the first time in her entire life, all Jyn could think about was the future. She was so used to thinking about her next fight. Now she was actually thinking- did she even know how to have a normal life? Not that she knew what it was like to be normal. And she and Cassian seemed to be thinking the same way.

He had never given his future much thought. And now that they standing together in the ring, they were both conflicted. What now?

A week before the fight, Jyn was ready for her weigh in. She hadn’t wanted any news or talk of Leia in the two weeks leading up to the fight, more concerned over her own progress.

She was sitting on the floor of the gym, a few hours before the weigh in. She was tapping her hands, thinking about making weight. She had been very careful these past few days, watching her diet and working out only to the limit Cassian set for her.

The door of the locker room opened and Cassian was walking out with his gym bag and he saw her.

“Hey,” he said, throwing his bag on the bench and getting into the ring, keeping his distance. He had been careful to do that, not wanting to ruin the good thing he had with Jyn.

“Hey,” she said, looking up at him with a small smile. He was beginning to understand that these smiles were small blessings and he needed to enjoy them while they lasted. Even when they were just the two of them she rarely smiled. He reached out and took the tape from her and finished her right wrist, not speaking. They had learned that they really didn’t have to talk much, they were pretty good at just being together.

He finished her wrist and looked at her, his hand moving to hold hers.

“You’re ready for the fight,” he said quietly, and she nodded, looking at their hands fused.

“Good?” she asked, and he looked at her in the eye.

“Good,” he replied quietly.

“My father is going to be watching. He is in Sweden right now, doing research.”

He smiled a little, knowing that anytime she spoke about anything personal it was going to be brief and he needed to hold onto it.

“Yeah?”

She looked away, as if thinking of him.

“He hasn’t seen me fight in almost a year,” she said, and he felt her tense up, but he refused to let go of her hand.

“You’re father would be proud of you, Jyn.”

She looked at him. She just smiled and got up to start her last round of punching before the weigh in.  
\---  
Jyn and Cassian arrived at the same hotel as the gala, where the weigh in was to take place. Cassian was dressed a little nicer than usual but Jyn was dressed for her fight. She was ready to face Leia again.

This time though, she was far more calm than usual. It was probably because Cassian was so near, but she wasn’t as on edge as she usually was. Mon Mothma was there, promoting the fight and Han waved at her from his seat among top talent. She was guided to the press conference room where she was to be weighed along with Leia.

They found that they were second to arrive, Leia was already standing in the room, wearing all white and standing with her brother.

“Ah, Cassian,” Luke said, shaking the coach’s hand and then offered Jyn a smile and nod.

“Jyn,” Leia said, turning and facing Jyn.

“Leia,” she replied, nodding and the two seemed like they weren’t sure what to do next. Probably shake hands. The media started pouring into the room and they were directed to standing next to the machine that was going to weigh them. People dressed in tuxedos and Mon Monthma piled around the tables and watched as the official did his work for both women. They were a half-pound difference, but well within their weight class.

Jyn and Leia were faced towards each other and asked to shake hands. The dog and pony show was finished without incident and Jyn walked over to Cassian, neither speaking but it seemed he was pleased with her. She hadn’t punched anyone today so that was good enough for him.

Mon Mothma walked over and greeted them.

“Jyn, I am impressed,” she said, looking the young fighter over, “We are all excited about the match.”

“You’ll get your money’s worth,” she replied, Cassian sighing a little- that was short lived.

“Jyn is ready. She can handle Leia.”

“Yes, but I wonder if you can handle Saw Gurrera.”

The name triggered something in Jyn that she was not anticipating. Intense pain and anger washed over her and she looked at Cassian. He reached out to her, barely touching her wrist but in that intense moment it was almost as if he was a lifeline for her.

“What do you mean?” he asked, when Jyn could not.

“Well, apparently he is intending to be at the match and wants to talk about a deal to get Jyn back. He dumped her over the entire road accident incident, but in the last few weeks you’ve risen above everything and he wants you to come home.”

Come home?

Had Jyn ever really been able to go home? She had never been really sure where her home was. Once her mother died, home was just a place she once lived. She had been searching for that place as long as she could remember. Saw had been that for her once. But not anymore. He had the nerve to show his face at her fight?

“As I said before, I only needed you for this fight- publicity and the name you’ve renewed in yourself have paid back what little I had bought you for,” Mon Mothma continued, looking at Cassian now, “She will be worth a lot to him. Make sure that she gets a good fight in, even if she loses.”

Cassian couldn’t take it anymore. He was about to speak, to shout, to scream at the woman who was his boss and tell her that she could shove her contract right up her-

“I’ll get you a good fight. But then I am gone.”

They both looked at Jyn.

“The contract was only for the one fight right? Then the gym was going to get rid of me? Well, that’s what you get. One fight out of me and then I am done with this. All of this,” she said, looking at Cassian and he saw the most intense pain in her eyes that he had ever seen before.

“Jyn,” he whispered but she had already started leaving, turning away and walking out. He looked over and saw Kay, who had quietly attended, and nodded to him to go after her. He followed the silent instruction and Cassian was left with Mon Mothma.

“Why did you even bring her back to boxing?”

“Someone like Jyn Erso is valuable as long as she is angry. This way she is sure to beat the living shit out of anyone in her path,” the woman in white replied, looking at Cassian. “I need a fighter, not a daughter or a girlfriend, I need Jyn Erso out there ready to kill.”

He made a face and turned away, walking away from her and thinking that maybe he didn’t need the Alliance gym after all.  
\---  
Jyn went home alone and sat in her living room on the floor, staring at the wall. She was so confused and angry and betrayed. Even if she was a marketing tool for Mothma, at least she was still a human being. But the idea that she even told her that Saw was going to be there. The thought of seeing him again made her angrier than she could possibly bear.  
She didn’t know why but all she wanted to do was to sit alone in the quiet with Cassian. She wanted to call him, to ask him to come here. But she didn’t know if she had the strength to do that. Kay had been smart enough to silently offer her a ride with only a few sarcastic remarks. But now she was alone.

Just as she was thinking this the door of her apartment suddenly opened and it was like a strange miracle, he was standing right there.

“Thought you’d be hitting something by now,” he said, and she stood up. She didn’t like talking so she did what she could. She reached out and hugged him like her life depended on it. Cassian was taken by surprise for a moment and then he hugged her too. He was coming to realize that he didn’t need to really talk too much either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the last chapter but I didn't like how it ended so I am re-writing is, so I will get it up within a week I promise!!!


	12. Fight Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re-Written ending from the one posted on Tumblr, I feel like this is less of a drop off. Thank you so much for reading!!

Cassian Andor stood in the locker room, hearing the roar of the people out in the arena in the distance. It was so loud he was surprised. He didn’t know if he had been to such a packed fight in his entire life. Jyn was sitting on the bench, an official and Kay helping her tape her hands and put on her gloves. Kay had found that despite his own unwillingness to want to help Jyn, Cassian insisted that he do it. Basically it was a “Cassian said I had to” kind of help that he was going to be providing in the ring tonight. But that suited Jyn just fine. She needed to be in this moment. Her father had texted her that he was watching and that he was wishing her good luck. She was going to have to face Saw eventually.

She waited until the official was finished with her gloves and she stood, Kay helping her get to her feet and they left Cassian alone with his fighter. Tonight was about Jyn and about her victory.

“You just need to be careful, don’t let her get an opening. Wait her out,” he said, his arms crossed because he had a feeling if he had his hands free he would touch her and get himself into trouble.

“Cassian-”

“Just keep moving.”

“Take the next chance,” she said, smiling a little and he nodded.

“And the next chance,” he repeated.

“On and on until I win? Or the chances are spent,” she said, looking down at her gloves.

“Don’t think, just keep fighting, I am going to be there with you the whole time. If it is bad enough, I will stop it.”

She nodded, knowing that he was lying. He would never dare to step in between her and a good fight. But it was a comfort to know he was going to be there, watching, cheering her on. Even if she only had Cassian and her father in her corner, it felt like it was more than enough. She nodded and then turned, facing the door.

The steady stream of screams were barely audible so when they went out and her name was announced in a loud booming voice, it almost was enough to blow her back a step. The place was a madhouse. The entire arena was in downtown LA, and it was packed to the brim. Celebrities, everyone who was anyone was at this fight tonight. She spotted Mon Mothma at ringside, her brilliant white suit easy to spot. Draven was next to Kay at the ring, growling low. She spotted Baze and Imwe in the seats, and she was glad to know that they were there. She even wondered for a moment if she might see Bohdi before she was taken to the ring and given her mouth guard.

Han was sitting next to a few celebrities and throwing out words towards her but she couldn’t hear them over the intense yelling. Leia was on the other side of the ring, her brother talking to her in a low voice and she was nodding.

Cassian moved close to Jyn, whispering in her ear.

“Don’t let the noise distract you. You and Leia are the only two people in the whole world.”

She nodded and got into the ring, the crowd going insane. Leia proceeded into the ring as well and they stood looking at each other. The Rebel and the Princess. It was a fitting fight for the both of them. Leia was the darling of the city, the country, and Jyn had clawed her way back to the forefront of people’s minds. She was ready to fight now.  
\---  
The official stepped between them and the announcer spoke loudly, counting off their weights and names, and they came together, touching gloves as asked. Then they went for it after the sound of the loud bell.

Jyn remembered everything Cassian had said. She was too reckless sometimes and getting into a fight too soon. She was going to have to be smart with Leia. She moved in and jabbed, giving an opening for Leia, who took it. She hit her twice in the side but Jyn was able to get a good hit in the head, knocking Leia a few steps to the side.

The princess put her gloves back up, recovering quickly. They danced around the ring, ready to kill each other.

Han sat forward and the crowd was going insane. This was going to be worth the price of admission.

Leia recovered and moved close, jabbing at Jyn, trying to get at her but Jyn was being smart. She needed to get an advantage and right now they were pretty even. So she threw out a few times but nothing was connecting.

Make each hit feel like a hundred, she thought, probably what Cassian would say.

She swung again and missed, but this time Leia didn’t and hit her shoulder, knocking her into the ropes. Jyn didn’t recover fast enough and Leia was on her quickly. She beat her to one knee, Jyn having to keep her gloves up to protect herself and the official separated them, Jyn having to wait a moment before she could actually stand. Leia moved around the ring and listened to the roar of the crowd. Cassian didn’t move from his spot in the corner. He had been shouting the entire time but never once did he move, knowing she wouldn’t want him to interfere. This was her fight.

Jyn got to her feet.

“You good?” the official asked and she nodded.

She put her gloves back up and faced down Leia.  
\---  
When Jyn was twelve, she was in a boxing class where she was the only girl. She had been forced out of her other class because she kept fighting with the girls and beating them too badly, the other parents complained. So she was alone in an entire class with some boys.

The first day a boy almost twice her size came up to her and started calling her stupid and short. She made a fist, cut his legs under him and beat him so bad he had to go to the hospital.

She was removed from that class and given private lessons only for six months before she was even allowed back in with other kids. No one dared make fun of her then.  
It had been at that time when Jyn realized that she was always going to be fighting. No matter who or what, she was always going to be looking at a wall she was going to have to hit through.

She was asked out on a date by a boy when they were in high school and she said that if he could hit her, she would go out with him. She tripped him and he cried, leaving and never coming back. She was never asked out again.

The first time she had ever been truly and completely happy was when Cassian brought her soup and told her that she was going to be okay.

Through the storm that was her life, it was strange that now she was thinking about Cassian. He was so clam and serious and intense. But she couldn’t help but think about him now. Maybe it was because she was so focused?

She looked at Leia and felt a weird sense of clarity. She had been looking at this fight completely wrong. It wouldn’t matter what would happen after this. This fight didn’t mean anything to Leia. She was going to be going home with her cute boyfriend, her millions of dollars in endorsements and a pretty face. Jyn was going home to a dirty mattress and punching bag.

This fight only mattered to her.

She closed her eyes and took in a sharp breath and went for it. She ducked out of the way of a right hook and she took her chance, she pounded Leia in the side, knocking her to her knee and then hitting her over her head, knocking her to the ground. She was told to back off by the official and she felt a lightness she hadn’t felt in a long time.  
Cassian shouted but she wasn’t able to really discern him from the rest of the chaos.

“You alright?” the official asked Leia as she forced herself to stand. She nodded and looked at Jyn. There it was, that spark. Leia rolled her shoulders and blood was forming under her eye but nothing serious.

“Alright,” the official said and they resumed.

Leia came at her, not giving in as they hit each other, round for round. Cassia watched in awe as Jyn didn’t give in one inch. She was going to have to be knocked out before she stopped fighting. She gave back as good as Leia gave. The two were going for a good solid two minutes before the ref separated them for the round. Jyn went to her bench, feeling her jaw swelling and her ears ringing. Cassian was right on her, Kay spraying her with water.

“Keep going,” he said, and that was it. This was her fight. This was her moment. He didn’t need to say anything else. “Keep going.”

She nodded and stood up when the bell rang and they returned to the ring.

Luke was shouting something to Leia and she nodded, heading to meet Jyn and they went back at it again with just as much ferocity as before.

Jyn was hit in the jaw, and then in the stomach, knocked down twice. Leia suffered a black eye, a hit to the side of the head and her bruises were going to be many. But generally, they were evenly matched. It was going to come down to who outlasted the other.

Jyn moved and hit Leia again, dancing around the ring as Leia followed, trying to keep up. Jyn wasn’t going to let her. She hit her again and again, knocking her in the shoulder, in the ear, in the head, in the stomach. Taking jab after jab.

The round was over again and they were starting to feel the effects on both sides. They were both at the end of their ropes. Cassian just said the same thing.

“Keep going.”

She got up and she fought.

She thought of her father and his students in Sweden, watching this.

She thought of those two idiots in the hospital who dared to fight her.

She thought of the Alliance Gym and Draven.

She thought about making Kay angry.

She thought about Mon Mothma taking a chance on her when really she didn’t have to.

She thought about Bodhi the astronaut and Baze and Imwe.

She thought about Cassian and her mattress and their morning after.

She closed her eyes and she swung hard.

The right took Leia by surprise, because she had been favoring the left the last few punches and it came from underneath, hitting her square in the jaw. Leia fell back, her knees crumbling as she fell to the ground hard. Jyn breathed and stepped back. She watched as the official came over and checked on her. He shook his head and looked at Luke, who came rushing into the ring. Cassian came over, grabbing Jyn by the arm and dragging her back to the corner, everyone in the arena erupting into chaos.

Was that really it?

She looked around, confused. Was that the hit that took down Leia Organa? She doubted it.

Kay hurried to rehydrate her and get her ready in case of another round and they got Leia to her feet. She looked at her brother and shook her head.

He had taken out her mouth guard, she was bleeding from her nose and lip.

He said something and then nodded at the official. She wasn’t going to give up. Jyn prepared for the next round as Leia was brought back to her feet and ready to go. But she was clearly tired and wanted this to end. So did Jyn.

They went for the last round.

Leia dodged each blow this time, but she was tiring out fast and Jyn needed to just keep at it. She went for blow after blow and soon it felt a little one-sided. Jyn backed off, waiting for Leia to get back into it. She went for another hit and Leia was smart this time, she ducked under her arm and went for the uppercut, hitting Jyn in the chin and knocking her back. She didn’t have the chance to recover as Leia went for it, knocking her hard in the head and she went to the ground instantly, hitting it so hard she let out a cry and the breath was knocked out of her.

The official was over her in an instant but it didn’t matter. Jyn wasn’t going to be able to get up.

Cassian hurried over and Leia was brought to the side of the ring by Luke and there was intense noise everywhere.

“It’s okay, mi amor, it’s okay,” Cassian whispered, touching her burning face, and she felt the colors and lights swirl around her. He helped her to sit up and Kay touched her face with a towel. Her eyes were barley open and she knew that she was done. Cassian nodded at her, and looked at the official. He shook his head and that was it.  
Leia Organa had in fact won this round.  
\---  
Jyn was sitting in the locker room, the noise of the crowds gone as an hour after her fight had passed and Cassian refused to move her until the doctor cleared it. She was lying on her back, looking at the ceiling and counting the punches in the fight with each passing second.

“So, you’re still here, I see,” a voice said, and Jyn looked up.

The last person in the entire world she expected was in the doorway.

Saw.

Had he aged this much in only seven months? He looked so much older.

“Doctors haven’t cleared me,” she muttered and slowly sat up, the ice on her hand moving a little.

“I wanted to see you sooner but I knew that you needed to focus on the fight.”

“Yeah, a lot of good that did me,” she muttered, knowing that Cassian wouldn’t approve of her being so self-deprecating.

“I wanted to see you for myself, just for a moment. I thought I would never actually get to see you again,” he said and she shook her head.

“Don’t do this. Don’t act like you care.”

“Are we still not friends, Jyn?” the old coach asked and she laughed.

“Friends? Seriously? You left me. I have been a fighter for you since I was sixteen, and you left me when I needed you the most.”

He did not refute it. It had been true.

“Looks like you didn’t really need me,” he said, looking her over. She had brought herself to this point, no one else. “You should be happy, though, despite my intense desire to have you come back-Mon Mothma said very clearly after the match that you were an Alliance Rebel, you weren’t going to be fighting with anyone else for at least a few more years.”

She stared at him, surprised. He nodded and started heading towards the door and almost walked right into Cassian.

Cassian looked at Jyn, as if he was asking for permission to defend her honor but she just stared at him.

“You fought well, Jyn,” Saw said, looking at her and then he was gone again. “I will see you around in the ring.”

Cassian waited silently as Saw left. There was a long pause before he went over to Jyn and sat down next to her. She was waiting for a lecture. Waiting for him to tell her that she shouldn’t have backed off. She’d given Leia the chance to come back and she took advantage. That fight was in hand but Jyn let herself get caught up in the moment. She had thought of all of the things that he was going to say.

“You should be proud of what you did out there. I am proud of you.”

She stared at him. That wasn’t what she had been expecting at all. He reached out and took a bruised, bloodied hand into his own.

“My dad was watching the fight.”

She hadn’t talked about him at all. They hadn’t had the time.

“It was a good fight. Let’s go, the doctor cleared you.”

He helped her to her feet, Jyn having to lean on him while he helped her put on a jacket and head out. The stadium was empty and there was no more noise. Just the two of them. 

They walked to his car.

They drove in silence for a few minutes. Nighttime in LA was a sight to behold.

“Where are we going?”

“Home,” he said, and she reached out and took his hand into her own, and looked over it for the rest of the trip, and thinking that she was happier in this moment then in any other in her entire life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know, Jyn didn't win, but that wasn't the point. I hope that everyone liked it!!!


End file.
